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^ 


AMERICAiN  SLAVERY, 


AS  VIEWED  AND  ACTED  ON 


PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


COMPILED  FOR  THE  BOARD  OF   PUBLICATION, 

BY    THK 

Rev.  a.  T.  McGILL,  D.D., 

STATED  CLERK   OF   THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

No.  821  Chestnut  Strekt. 


y 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 

THE    TRUSTEES     OF    THE 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District 
of  Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED  BY    WESTCOTT   &   THOMSON. 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 


For  more  than  a  century,  after  Its  introduction, 
slavery  seems  to  have  been  accepted  as  a  fact,  in  the 
social  and  civil  condition  of  this  country,  which  the 
Presbyterian  church  was  called  to  consider  with  care- 
ful enlightenment,  rather  than  hasty  legislation  ;  in 
view  of  her  mission,  to  expound  and  apply  great 
principles,  before  she  ventured  upon  the  enforcement 
of  discipline.  Accordingly,  from  the  beginning,  her 
utterances  on  the  subject  have  been  mature,  compre- 
hensive, and  consistent.  There  is  not  one  deliver- 
ance, to  be  found  on  record,  which  we  would  sup- 
press or  conceal.  It  is  true,  that,  in  seeking  to  mod- 
erate the  rage  of  human  passions,  and  guard  against 
fanatical  extremes,  she  has  met  this  and  that  prevail- 
ing agitation,  with  special  forms  of  declaration,  that 
some  have  reproached  as  departure  from  earlier  and 
more  formal  enunciation  of  principles  :  but  they  only 
need  to  be  brought  into  one  connected  view,  in  the 
light  of  different  times,  and  the  changing  circum- 
stances which  evoked  them,  to  appear  all,  but  vary- 
ing aspects  of  the  same  determination. 

3 


4  AMERICAN    S1>AVERY. 

Four  things  are  always  to  be  discerned,  clearly, 
in  the  result  aimed  at,  as  often  as  this  church  has 
been  brought  to  express  her  mind,  respecting  slavery 
in  our  land.  1st.  The  ultimate  emancipation  of  the 
slave,  and  overthrow  of  the  whole  system  as  an  evil 
thing.  2d.  The  amelioration  of  the  system  while  it 
lasts,  by  subjecting  to  her  watchful  discipline  the  re- 
lation of  master  and  slave.  3d.  The  religious  edu- 
cation of  slaves  and  their  children,  to  fit  them  for  the 
enjoyment  of  liberty,  as  well  as  to  save  their  souls. 
4th.  The  use  of  regenerated  black  men  as  an  instru- 
mentality for  the  evangelization  of  Africa  ,•  which 
white  men  cannot  achieve,  by  reason  of  its  climate. 

I.  It  is  singular,  that  this  last  object,  and  appar- 
ently the  most  remote  and  incidental,  was  the  first  to 
engage  the  action  of  our  church ;  so  far  as  the  record 
evinces.  Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins,  pastor  at  New- 
port, R.  I.,  a  pupil  and  biographer  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards ;  distinguished  in  theology  as  the  author  of  the 
"  Ilopkinsian  system ;"  was  probably  the  first  man 
in  our  country,  to  stir  up  an  organized  political  ac- 
tion against  slavery — succeeding,  in  1774,  to  obtain 
the  passage  of  a  law,  prohibiting  the  importation  of 
slaves  into  the  colony.  In  the  previous  year,  1773, 
he  had  formed  a  plan  for  evangelizing  Africa,  by 
sending  negro  missionaries,  duly  qualified :  and  had 
enlisted  the  zealous  co-operation  of  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles, 
pastor  of  another  church  in  Newport,  and  subse- 
quently, the  learned  and  eminent  President  of  Yale 
College.     Those  two  ministers  communicated  their 


AMEraCAN    SLAVERY.  5 

project,  by  formal  overture,  to  the  Synod  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  met  at  Philadelphia,  May, 
1774.  The  ready  interest  on  which  they  counted, 
was  manifested  in  the  character  of  the  Committee, 
appointed  to  report  on  the  overture — consisting  of 
men  who  were  famous  m  their  day  for  patriotism 
and  pliilanthropy.  All  the  items  gleaned  from  our 
Minutes,  pp.  456 — 8,  are  as  follows  : 

"A  representation  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ezra  Stiles  and  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins,  respecting  the  sending  two  natives 
of  Africa  on  a  mission  to  propagate  Christianity  in  their 
native  countrj-,  and  a  request  that  the  Synod  would  coun- 
tenance this  undertaking  by  their  approbation  of  it,  was 
brought  in  and  read." 

' '  The  representation  and  request  relative  to  sending  negro 
missionaries  to  Africa,  was  taken  into  consideration,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  the  subject  of  negro  slavery  came  to  be 
considered,  and  after  much  reasoning  on  the  matter  Dr. 
Rodgers,  Messrs.  John  Miller,  Caldwell,  and  Montgomery, 
were  appointed  a  committee  to  bring  in  an  overture  on  this 
subject  on  Wednesday  morning." 

"  The  committee  appointed  to  prepare  an  overture  on 
the  representation  from  Dr.  Stiles  and  the  Rev.  Samuel 
Hopkins,  and  also  on  the  subject  of  negro  slavery,  brought 
in  a  draught,  the  first  part  of  which  being  read  and 
amended,  was  approved,  and  is  as  follows  : 

"The  Synod  is  very  happy  to  have  an  opportunity  to 
express  their  readiness  to  concur  with  and  assist  in  a  mis- 
sion to  the  African  tribes,  and  especially  where  so  many 
circumstances  concur,  as  in  the  present  case,  to  intimate 
that  it  is  the  will  of  God,  and  to  encourage  us  to  hope  for 
success.  We  assure  the  gentlemen  aforesaid,  we  are  ready 
to  do  all  that  is  proper  for  us  in  our  station  for  their  en- 
couragement and  assistance. 
1  * 


6  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

"  But  some  difficulties  attending  the  discussion  of  the 
second  part  of  that  overture,  the  Synod  agree  to  defer  the 
affair  to  our  next  meeting." — Minutes^  1774,  pp.  456,  458. 

The  confusion  of  the  country,  (as  it  was  now  ap- 
proaching the  struggle  with  Great  Britain  for  inrle- 
pendence,  in  an  early  stage  of  which,  the  Newport 
pastors  and  people  were  dispersed,  and  the  projects 
of  benevolence  set  aside,  by  the  calamities  of  inva- 
sion and  war,)  must  account  for  the  entire  silence  of 
our  courts,  in  their  subsequent  meetings,  respecting 
this  interesting  enterprise. 

II.  The  second  record  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
made  May  28th,  1787,  avowed  distinctly  the  ultimate 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  as  the  policy  of  the  church. 
This  may  be  called  the  first  action  on  the  subject, 
declarative  of  principles  and  policy,  and  it  was  evi- 
dently a  spontaneous  action.  There  is  no  mention 
of  any  memorial  or  overture  from  any  individual  or 
body  of  men — not  even  from  any  court  of  inferior 
degree.  The  propositions  on  which  the  Synod  acted 
were  "  overtured"  by  her  own  committee  on  over- 
tures. They  were  reported  on  Saturday,  and  made 
the  order  of  the  day  for  Monday  following;  and 
seem  to  have  been  acted  on  with  solemn  and  careful 
deliberation.  The  inalienable  right  of  the  slave  to 
freedom,  the  duty  of  the  church  to  vindicate  this 
right  'j  and  yet  the  recognition  of  civil  society  in  its 
power,  and  tlie  necessity  of  preparing  the  slave  for 
freedom,  by  religious  education  and  industrial  train- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  7 

iiig,  are  all  distinctly  embodied  in  this  action.  The 
following  is  the  whole  minute,  embracing  the  over- 
ture, and  the  deliverance  of  the  Synod,  ^dz. : 

"The  following  was  brought  in  by  the  committee  of 
overtures : 

"The  Creator  of  the  world  having  made  of  one  flesh  all 
the  children  of  men,  it  becomes  them,  as  members  of  the 
same  familj^,  to  consult  and  promote  each  other's  happi- 
ness. It  is  more  especially  the  duty  of  those  who  main- 
tain the  rights  of  humanity,  and  who  acknowledge  and 
teach  the  obhgations  of  Christianity,  to  use  such  means  as 
are  in  their  power  to  extend  the  blessings  of  equal  freedom 
to  every  part  of  the  human  race. 

"From  a  full  conviction  of  these  truths,  and  sensible 
that  the  rights  of  human  nature  are  too  well  understood  to 
admit  of  debate,  Overtured,  that  the  Synod  of  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  recommend,  in  the  warmest  terms,  to  every 
member  of  their  body,  and  to  all  the  Churches  and  families 
under  their  care,  to  do  everything  in  their  power  consistent 
with  the  rights  of  civil  society,  to  promote  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  and  the  instruction  of  negroes,  whether  bond  or 
free." 

The  Synod,  taking  into  consideration  the  overture  con- 
cerning slavery,  transmitted  by  the  Committee  of  Over- 
tures last  Saturday,  came  to  the  following  judgment : 

"The  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  do  highly 
approve  of  the  general  principles  in  favour  of  universal 
liberty,  that  prevail  in  America,  and  the  interest  which 
many  of  the  States  have  taken  in  promoting  the  abolition 
of  slavery  ;  yet,  inasmuch  as  men  introduced  from  a  servile 
state  to  a  participation  of  all  the  privileges  of  civil  society, 
without  a  proper  education,  and  without  previous  habits 
of  industry,  may  be,  in  many  respects,  dangerous  to  the 
community,  therefore  they  earnestly  recommend  it  to  all 
the  members  belonging  to  their  communion,  to  give  those 


8  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

persons  wlio  are  at  present  held  in  servitude  such  good 
education  as  to  prepare  them  for  the  better  enjoyment  of 
freedom;  and  they  moreover  recommend  that  masters, 
wherever  they  find  servants  disposed  to  make  a  just  im- 
provement of  the  privilege,  would  give  them  a  pecuUum, 
or  grant  them  sufficient  time  and  sufficient  means  of  pro- 
curing their  own  liberty  at  a  moderate  rate,  that  thereby 
they  may  be  brought  into  society  with  those  habits  of  in- 
dustry that  may  render  them  useful  citizens ;  and,  finally, 
they  recommend  it  to  all  their  people  to  use  the  most  pru- 
dent measures,  consistent  with  the  interest  and  the  state 
of  society,  in  the  counties  where  they  live,  to  procure 
eventually  the  final  abolition  of  slavery  in  America/' — 
Minutes,  May  28th,  1787,  p.  540. 

This  action  is  also  the  first  taken  by  the  General 
Assembly ;  as  we  see  in  the  Minutes  of  1793,  p.  76, 
when  a  memorial  having  been  sent  to  the  Mode- 
rator from  Warner  Mifflin,  a  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  it  was  "  Ordered,  that  the  records  of  the 
General  Synod  of  the  year  1787,  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  be  published  among  the  extracts  to  be 
printed  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Assembly." 

III.  The  third  distinct  action  was  on  the  subject 
of  commmiion  with  slaveholders. 

"A  serious  and  conscientious  person,  a  member  of  a 
Presbyterian  congregation,  who  views  the  slavery  of  the 
negroes  as  a  moral  evil,  highly  offensive  to  God,  and  inju- 
rious to  the  interests  of  the  gospel,  lives  under  the  minis- 
try of  a  person,  or  amongst  a  society  of  people  who  concur 
with  him  in  sentiment  on  the  subject  upon  general  princi- 
ples, yet  for  particular  reasons  hold  slaves,  and  tolerate 
the  practice  in  others.  Ovcrtwred,  ought  the  former  of 
these  persons,  under  the  impressions  and  circumstances 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  9 

above  described,  to  hold  Christian  communion  with  the 
latter?" 

"After  due  deliberation,  it  was 

"1,  Resolved,  That  as  the  same  difference  of  opinion 
with  respect  to  slavery  takes  place  in  sundry  other  parts 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  notwithstanding  which  they 
live  in  charity  and  peace  according  to  the  doctrine  and 
practice  of  the  Apostles,  it  is  hereby  recommended  to  all 
conscientious  persons,  and  especially  to  those  whom  it 
immediately  respects,  to  do  the  same.  At  the  same  time, 
the  General  Assembly  assure  all  the  Churches  under  their 
care,  that  they  view,  with  the  deepest  concern,  any  ves- 
tiges of  slavery  which  may  exist  in  our  country,  and  refer 
the  Churches  to  the  records  of  the  Greneral  Assembly  pub- 
lished at  different  times,  but  especially  to  an  overture  of 
the  late  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  published 
in  1787,  and  republished  among  the  extracts  from  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1793,  on  that  head, 
with  which  they  trust  every  conscientious  person  will  be 
fully  satisfied. 

"2.  Resolved,  That  Mr.  Rice  and  Dr.  Muir,  Ministers, 
and  Mr.  Robert  Patterson,  an  Elder,  be  a  committee  to 
draught  a  letter  to  the  Presbytery  of  Transylvania,  on  the 
subject  of  the  above  overture." 

' '  The  committee  appointed  to  prepare  a  draught  of  a 
letter  to  the  Presbyterj'^  of  Transylvania,  reported  a 
draught,  which  being  read  and  debated  for  some  time,  a 
motion  was  made,  Shall  this  draught  of  a  letter  be  read 
and  debated  by  paragraphs,  or  not?  The  vote  being 
taken,  the  question  was  carried  in  the  affirmative.  The 
consideration  of  the  draught  was  resumed,  and  after  very 
considerable  time  spent  therein,  it  was  amended  and 
adopted,  and  ordered  to  be  signed,  and  sent  to  the  Presby- 
tery of  Transylvania  by  their  Commissioners." — Minutes, 
1795,  pp.  103,  104. 


10  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 


The  T^etter. 

"To  our  brethren,  members  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  under  the 
care  of  Transylvania  Presbytery. 

Dear  Friends  and  Brethren: — The  Greneral  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  hear  with  concern 
from  your  Commissioners,  that  differences  of  opinion,  with 
respect  to  holding  Christian  communion  with  those  pos- 
sessed of  slaves,  agitate  the  minds  of  some  among  you, 
and  threaten  divisions  which  may  have  the  most  ruinous 
tendency.  The  subject  of  slavery  has  repeatedly  claimed 
the  attention  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  the  Commis- 
sioners from  the  Presbytery  of  Transylvania  are  furnished 
with  attested  copies  of  these  decisions,  to  be  read  by  the 
Presbytery  when  it  shall  appear  to  them  proper,  together 
with  a  copy  of  this  letter,  to  the  several  Churches  under 
their  care. 

'  The  General  Assembly  have  taken  every  step  which 
they  deemed  expedient  or  wise,  to  encourage  emancipa- 
tion, and  to  render  the  state  of  those  who  are  in  slavery  as 
mild  and  tolerable  as  possible. 

' '  Forbearance  and  peace  are  frequently  inculcated  and 
enjoined  in  the  New  Testament :  '  Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers:' 'Let  no  one  do  anything  through  strife  and 
vain-glory  :'  '  Let  each  esteem  others  better  than  himself ' 
The  followers  of  Jesus  ought  conscientiously  to  walk  wor- 
thy of  their  vocation,  '  with  all  lowliness  and  meekness, 
with  long-suffering,  forbearing  one  another,  endeavouring 
to  keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace. '  If 
every  difference  of  opinion  were  to  keep  men  at  a  distance, 
they  could  subsist  in  no  state  of  society,  either  civil  or  re- 
ligious. The  General  Assembly  would  impress  this  upon 
the  minds  of  their  brethren,  and  urge  them  to  follow  peace, 
and  the  things  which  make  for  peace. 

"The  General  Assembly  commend  our  dear  friends  and 
brethren  to  the  grace  of  God,  praying  that  the  peace  of 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  11 

God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,  may  possess  their 
hearts  and  minds. 

"Signed  by  order  of  the  Assembly." — Minutes^  1795, 
p.  104. 

The  original  draught  of  this  letter  has  been  judi- 
ciously preserved  for  us  by  the  Editor  of  the  Board 
of  Publication;  and  it  appears  from  a  foot-note, 
on  page  104,  that,  iu  the  course  of  the  discussion, 
large  paragraphs,  fully  half  of  the  whole  paper, 
were  stricken  out.  One  of  these,  it  may  well  com- 
port with  our  object  to  insert  here,  as  sho^dng  the 
mind  of  the  Church  in  what  she  would  not  declare ; 
either  because  it  had  been  abeady  declared  substan- 
tially, or  because  its  forms  of  expression  were  objec- 
tionable. 

"  The  General  Assembly  earnestly  recommend  to 
all  under  the  care  of  any  of  their  Presbyteries,  who 
may  be  in  possession  of  slaves,  to  make  conscience 
to  bring  all  of  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion of  the  Lord ;  to  have  them  taught  to  read ;  to 
impress  their  minds  with  the  importance  of  CMs- 
tianity ;  and  to  familiarize  them  to  habits  of  industry 
and  order.  A  neglect  of  tliis  is  inconsistent  with 
the  character  of  a  Christian  master ;  but  the  observ- 
ance might  prevent,  in  great  part,  what  is  really  the 
moral  evil  attending  slavery;  namely,  allowing  pre- 
cious souls  under  the  charge  of  masters  to  perish  for 
lack  of  knowledge.  Freedom  is  desirable,  but  it 
cannot  at  all  times  be  enjoyed  with  advantage ;  a  pa- 
rent, to  set  hLs  child  loose  from  all  authority,  would 


12  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

be  doing  him  the  most  essential  injury.  The  child 
must  first  be  prepared  by  education  and  discipline 
to  act  for  himself,  before  the  restraint  of  parental 
authority  is  taken  off.  A  slave  let  loose  upon  soci- 
ety, ignorant,  idle,  and  headstrong,  is  in  a  state  to 
injure  others,  and  to  ruin  himself.  No  Christian 
master  can  answer  for  such  conduct  to  his  own 
mmd.  The  slave  must  first  be  in  a  situation  to  act 
properly  as  a  member  of  civil  society,  before  he  can 
advantageously  be  introduced  therein." 

IV.  Tlie  Brotherhood  of  all  the  races  in  our 
country,  free  and  slave,  civilized  and  savage,  distin- 
guished every  plan  of  benevolence,  in  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church,  at  the  opening  of  the  present  century, 
"The  gospelizing  of  the  Indians — w^ith  a  plan  for 
their  civilization,"  'Hhe  instruction  of  the  negroes, 
the  poor,  and  those  who  are  destitute  of  the  means 
of  grace" — are  the  great  objects  proposed  by  our 
General  Assembly  in  1800,  when  the  system  was 
first  projected,  that  has  now  been  matured  into  five 
or  six  different  departments  of  effective  beneficence. 
See  Minutes,  1800,  pp.  195,  206;  also,  of  1801, 
p.  228. 

In  1801,  it  was  resolved,  that  "  Mr.  John  Chavis, 
a  black  man  of  prudence  and  piety,  who  has  been 
educated  and  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Lexington,  in  Virginia,  be  employed  as  a  mis- 
sionary among  the  people  of  his  own  colour,  until  the 
meeting  of  the  next  General  Assembly.     And  that 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  13 

for  his  better  direction  in  the  discharge  of  duties, 
which  are  attended  with  many  circumstances  of  deli- 
cacy and  difficulty,  some  prudential  instructions  be 
issued  to  him  by  the  Assembly,  governing  himself 
by  which  the  knowledge  of  rehgion  among  that  peo- 
ple may  be  made  more  and  more  to  strengthen  the 
order  of  society.  And  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hoge,  Alex- 
ander, Logan,  and  Stephenson,  were  appointed  a  com- 
mittee to  draught  instructions  to  said  Chavis,  and 
prescribe  his  route." — Minutes^  p.  229, 

This  black  missionary,  it  is  said,  continued  in  the 
service,  thus  directed,  several  years. 

In  1807,  the  Presb}i;ery  of  Union  sent  an  over- 
ture to  the  General  Assembly,  for  advice  in  the  case 
of  John  Gloucester,  a  black  man,  who  had  been  pre- 
paring for  the  ministry;  under  their  direction,  but 
was  not  yet  qualified,  in  the  usual  attainments — 
while  the  need  for  his  services  was  loud  and  urgent. 
In  answer,  it  was  Resolved ,  1st,  That  the  General 
Assembly  highly  approve  the  caution  and  prudence 
of  the  Presbytery  of  Union  in  tliis  case.  2d,  Tliat, 
considering  the  circumstances  of  this  particular  case, 
\dz.  the  evidence  of  unusual  talents,  discretion,  and 
piety,  possessed  by  John  Gloucester ;  the  good  rea- 
son there  is  to  believe  that  he  may  be  highly  useful 
in  preaching  the  gospel  among  those  of  his  own  col- 
our ;  and  the  various  difficulties  likely  to  attend  a 
farther  delay  in  proceeding  in  this  case,  the  General 
Assembly  did,  and  hereby  do,  authorize  the  Presby- 
tery of  Philadelphia  to  consider  the  case  of  John 

2 


14  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

Gloucester ;  and,  if  they  think  ])roper,  to  license  him 
to  preach  the  gospel."     See  Minutes,  1807,  p.  381. 

That  this  black  brother  was  approved  in  the  min- 
istry, and  in  the  highest  ecclesiastical  fellowship 
with  his  white  brethren,  is  evident  from  the  fact, 
that  he  had  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1817, 
as  a  regular  member,  and  commissioner  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia. 

In  1815,  the  General  Assembly  began  to  rehvlxe 
the  buying  and  selliyig  of  slaves,  and  all  cruelty  of  treat- 
ment— while  at  the  same  time  reiterating  the  import- 
ance of  preparing  the  slave  for  liberty,  by  careful 
education. 

"The  committee  to  which  was  committed  the  report  of 
the  committee  to  which  the  petition  of  some  Elders,  who 
entertain  conscientious  scruples  on  the  subject  of  holding 
slaves,  together  with  that  of  the  Synod  of  Ohio,  concern- 
ing the  buying  and  selling  of  slaves,  had  been  referred,  re- 
ported, and  their  report  being  read  and  amended,  is  as 
follows,  viz. : 

' '  The  General  Assembly  have  repeatedly  declared  their 
cordial  approbation  of  those  principles  of  civil  liberty 
which  appear  to  be  recognised  by  the  Federal  and  State 
governments  in  these  United  States.  They  have  expressed 
their  regret  that  the  slavery  of  the  Africans,  and  of  their 
descendants,  still  continues  in  so  many  places,  and  even 
among  those  within  the  pale  of  the  Church,  and  have 
urged  the  Presbyteries  under  their  care  to  adopt  such 
measures  as  will  secure  at  least  to  the  rising  generation  of 
slaves,  within  the  bounds  of  the  Church,  a  religious  edu- 
cation, that  they  may  be  prepared  for  the  exercise  and  en- 
joyment of  liberty,  when  God  in  his  providence  may  open 
a  door  for  their  emancipation.     The  committee  refer  said 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  15 

petitioners  to  the  printed  extracts  of  the  Synod  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  for  the  j'ear  1787,  on  this  subject, 
republished  by  the  Assembly  in  1793,  and  also  to  the  ex- 
tracts of  the  Minutes  of  the  Assembly  for  1795,  which  last 
are  in  the  following  words,  viz.     [See  above.  ] 

' '  This  is  deemed  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  first  petition, 
and  with  regard  to  the  second,  the  Assembly  observe,  that 
although  in  some  sections  of  our  country,  under  certain 
circumstances,  the  transfer  of  slaves  may  be  unavoidable, 
yet  they  consider  the  buying  and  selling  of  slaves  by  way 
of  traffic,  and  all  undue  severity  in  the  management  of 
them,  as  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.  And 
they  recommend  it  to  the  Presbyteries  and  Sessions  under 
their  care,  to  make  use  of  all  prudent  measures  to  prevent 
such  shameful  and  unrighteous  conduct." — Muiutes^  1815, 
p.  585. 

Again,  in  approving  promptly  and  heartily  the 
organization  of  the  American  Colonization  Society, 
wliich  took  place  in  December,  1816,  and  which  the 
General  Assembly  has  recommended  no  less  than 
deven  times,  more  or  less  directly,  from  1817  to 
1853,  we  find  the  most  emphatic  recognition  of  the 
black  man  as  a  brother,  whose  degradation  is  de- 
plored, and  whose  elevation  to  liberty  and  equality 
is  to  be  attempted,  by  every  legitimate  means. 

Thus  in  1819,  the  Assembly  said — "The  situa- 
tion of  the  people  of  colour  in  this  country  has  fi^e- 
quently  attracted  the  attention  of  this  Assembly. 
In  the  distinctive  and  indelible  marks  of  their  colour, 
and  the  prejudices  of  the  people,  an  insuperable  ob- 
stacle has  been  placed  to  the  execution  of  any  plan 
for  elevating  their  character,  and  placing  them  on  a 


16  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

footing  with  their  brethren  of  the  same  common 
family.  In  restoring  them  to  the  land  of  their 
fathers,  the  Assembly  hope  that  the  way  may  be 
opened,  not  only  for  the  accomplishment  of  that  ob- 
ject, but  for  introducing  civilization  and  the  gospel 
to  the  benighted  nations  of  Africa.  From  the  in- 
formation and  statements  received,  the  Assembly  be- 
lieve that  the  proposed  colony  in  Africa  may  be 
made  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  the  efforts  which  are 
making  to  abolish  the  iniquitous  traffic  in  slaves 
carried  on  in  Africa,  and  happily  calculated  to  lay 
the  foundation  of  a  gradual  emancipation  of  slaves 
in  our  own  country,  in  a  legal  and  constitutional 
manner,  and  without  violating  the  rights  or  injuring 
the  feelings  of  our  southern  brethren.  With  these 
views  the  Assembly  feel  it  a  duty  to  recommend  the 
American  Society  for  colonizing  the  free  people  of 
colour  of  the  United  States  to  the  patronage  and  at- 
tention of  the  churches  under  their  care,  and  to  be- 
nevolent individuals  throughout  the  Union." — Min- 
utes of  1819,  p.  710. 

V.  The  complete  summary  of  principles  and  direc- 
tions, given,  once  for  all,  in  the  Act  of  1818. 

No  other  branch  of  the  church  on  this  continent, 
even  the  most  local  in  its  occupation,  North  or 
South,  and  much  less  any  other  one  coextensive 
with  the  whole  territory  of  the  nation,  and  repre- 
senting all  the  diversities  of  social  life  in  the  land, 
has  a  record  so  early,  and  so  explicit,  and  so  ample, 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  17 

as  tills  one,  upon  the  subject  of  slaveiy.  It  was 
made,  too,  at  the  very  point,  in  time,  of  the  di- 
vergence between  the  North  and  the  South,  which 
brought  upon  our  country  the  struggle  that  has 
continued  ever  since,  with  greater  or  less  demonstra- 
tion of  animosity.  Missouri  had  applied  in  1817 
for  leave  to  make  a  Constitution,  with  a  view  to  ad- 
mission as  a  State  of  the  Union;  and  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  into  new  States,  was  the  great  ques- 
tion which  awakened  the  most  profound  solicitude 
among  patriots  and  Clu-istians.  It  was  a  time  of 
memorable  excitement  in  the  pohtical  w^orld — so 
great  as  even  then  to  threaten  the  disruption  of  this 
Republic.  We  may  well,  therefore,  admire  the  una- 
nimity with  which  the  Presbyterian  Church  adopted 
the  calm,  fair,  full  and  fearless  deliverance,  which  is 
as  follows : 

(a)  "The  following  resolution  was  submitted  to  the  As- 
sembly, viz. 

''''Resolved,  That  a  person  who  shall  sell  as  a  slave,  a 
member  of  the  church,  who  shall  be  at  the  time  in  good 
standing  in  the  church  and  unwilling  to  be  sold,  acts  incon- 
sistently with  the  spirit  of  Christianity;  and  ought  to  be 
debarred  from  the  communion  of  the  church. 

"After  considerable  discussion,  the  subject  was  commit- 
ted to  Dr.  G-reen,  Dr.  Baxter,  and  Mr.  Burgess,  to  ]:>repare 
a.report  to  be  adopted  by  the  Assembly,  embracing  the  ob- 
ject of  the  above  resolution,  and  also  expressing  the  opin- 
ion of  the  Assembly  in  general,  as  to  slavery." — Minutes, 
1818,  p.  688. 

[The  report  of  the  committee  was  unanimously  adopted,  and  is  as 
follows,  viz.] 

2* 


18  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

"The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church, 
having  taken  into  considei-ation  tte  subject  of  slavery,  think 
proper  to  make  known  their  sentiments  upon  it  to  the 
churches  and  people  under  their  care. 

(6)  "  We  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one  portion 
of  the  human  race  by  another,  as  a  gross  violation  of  the 
most  precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature ;  as  ut- 
terly inconsistent  with  the  law  of  Grod,  which  requires  us 
to  love  our  neighbour  as  ourselves,  and  as  totally  irrecon- 
cilable with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
which  enjoin  that  '  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them. '  Slavery  creates 
a  paradox  in  the  moral  system ;  it  exhibits  rational,  account- 
able, and  immortal  beings  in  such  circumstances  as 
scarcely  to  leave  them  the  power  of  moral  action.  It  ex- 
hibits them  as  dependent  on  the  will  of  others,  whether 
they  shall  receive  religious  instruction ;  whether  they  shall 
know  and  worship  the  true  God ;  whether  they  shall  enjoy 
the  ordinances  of  the  gospel ;  whether  they  shall  perform 
the  duties  and  cherish  the  endearments  of  husbands  and 
wives,  parents  and  children,  neighbours  and  friends; 
whether  they  shall  preserve  their  chastity  and  purity,  or 
regard  the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity.  Such  are 
some  of  the  consequences  of  slavery — consequences  not  im- 
aginary, but  which  connect  themselves  with  its  very  exis- 
tence. The  evils  to  which  the  slave  is  alwaj^s  exposed  of- 
ten take  place  in  fact,  and  in  their  very  worst  degree  and 
form ;  and  where  all  of  them  do  not  take  place,  as  we  re- 
joice to  say  in  many  instances,  through  the  influence  of  the 
principles  of  humanitj'^  and  religion  on  the  mind  of  masters, 
they  do  not — still  the  slave  is  deprived  of  his  natural  right, 
degraded  as  a  human  being,  and  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
passing  into  the  hands  of  a  master  who  may  inflict  upon 
him  all  the  hardships  and  injuries  which  inhumanity  and 
avarice  maj'^  suggest. 

"From  this  view  of  the  consequences  resulting  from  the 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  19 

practice  into  whicli  Christian  people  have  most  inconsist- 
ently fallen,  of  enslaving  a  portion  of  their  brethren  of 
mankind — for  '  Grod  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men  to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth,' — it  is  manifestly  the 
duty  of  all  Christians  who  enjoy  the  light  of  the  present 
day,  when  the  inconsistency  of  slavery,  both  with  the  dic- 
tates of  humanity  and  religion,  has  been  demonstrated,  and 
is  generally  seen  and  acknowledged,  to  use  their  honest, 
earnest,  and  unwearied  endeavours,  to  correct  the  errors  of 
former  times,  and  as  speedily  as  possible  to  eiFace  this  blot 
on  our  holy  religion,  and  to  obtain  the  complete  abolition 
of  slavery  throughout  Christendom,  and  if  possible  through- 
out the  world. 

(c)  "We  rejoice  that  the  Church  to  which  we  belong 
commenced  as  early  as  any  other  in  this  country,  the  good 
work  of  endeavouring  to  put  an  end  to  slavery,  and  that  in 
the  same  work  many  of  itis  members  have  ever  since  been, 
and  now  are,  among  the  most  active,  vigorous,  and  effi- 
cient labourers.  We  do,  indeed,  tenderly  sympathize  with 
those  portions  of  our  Church  and  our  country  where  the 
evil  of  slavery  has  been  entailed  upon  them  ;  where  a  great, 
and  the  most  virtuous  part  of  the  community  abhor  slavery, 
and  wish  its  extermination  as  sincerely  as  any  others — but 
where  the  number  of  slaves,  their  ignorance,  and  their  vi- 
cious habits  generall}^,  render  an  immediate  and  universal 
emancipation  inconsistent  alike  with  the  safety  and  happi- 
ness of  the  master  and  the  slave.  With  those  who  are 
thus  circumstanced,  we  repeat  that  we  tenderly  sympathize. 
At  the  same  time,  we  earnestly  exhort  them  to  continue, 
and  if  possible,  to  increase  their  exertions  to  effect  a  total 
abolition  of  slavery.  We  exhort  them  to  suffer  no  greater 
delaj^  to  take  place  in  this  most  interesting  concern,  than  a 
regard  to  the  public  welftire  truly  and  indispensably  de- 
mands. 

{d)  "As  our  country  has  inflicted  a  most  grievous  injury 
upon  the  unhappy  Africans,  by  bringing  them  into  slavery. 


20  AMERICAN   SLAVERY. 

• 
we  cannot  indeed  urge  that  we  should  add  a  second  injury 
to  the  first,  by  emancipating  them  in  such  manner  as  that 
they  will  be  likely  to  destroy  themselves  or  others.  But 
we  do  think  that  our  country  ought  to  be  governed  in  this 
matter  by  no  other  consideration  than  an  honest  and  im- 
partial regard  to  the  happiness  of  the  injured  party,  unin- 
fluenced by  the  expense  or  inconvenience  which  such  a  re- 
gard may  involve.  We,  therefore,  warn  all  who  belong  to 
our  denomination  of  Christians,  against  unduly  extending 
this  plea  of  necessity ;  against  making  it  a  cover  for  the 
love  and  practice  of  slavery,  or  a  pretence  for  not  using 
efforts  that  are  lawful  and  practicable,  to  extinguish  this 
evil. 

"And  we,  at  the  same  time,  exhort  others  to  forbear 
harsh  censures,  and  uncharitable  reflections  on  their  breth- 
ren, who  unhappily  live  among  slaves  whom  they  cannot 
immediately  set  free ;  but  who,  ak  the  same  time,  are  really 
using  all  their  influence,  and  all  their  endeavours,  to  bring 
them  into  a  state  of  freedom,  as  soon  as  a  door  for  it  can 
be  safely  opened. 

"Having  thus  expressed  our  views  of  slavery,  and  of 
the  duty  indispensably  incumbent  on  all  Christians  to 
labour  for  its  complete  extinction,  we  proceed  to  recom- 
mend, and  we  do  it  with  all  the  earnestness  and  solemnity 
which  this  momentous  subject  demands,  a  particular  atten- 
tion to  the  following  points : 

(e)  "We  recommend  to  all  our  people  to  patronize  and 
encourage  the  Society  lately  formed,  for  colonizing  in  Af- 
rica, the  land  of  their  ancestors,  the  free  people  of  colour 
in  our  country.  We  hope  that  much  good  may  result  from 
the  plans  and  efforts  of  this  Society.  And  while  we  ex- 
ceedingly rejoice  to  have  witnessed  its  origin  and  organiza- 
tion among  the  holders  of  slaves,  as  giving  an  unequivocal 
pledge  of  their  desires  to  deliver  themselves  and  their 
country  from  the  calamity  of  slavery  ;  we  hope  that  those 
portions  of  the  American  union,  whose  inhabitants  are  by 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  21 

a  gracious  providence  more  favourably  circumstanced,  will 
cordially,  and  liberallj^,  and  earnestly  co-operate  with  their 
brethren,  in  bringing  about  the  great  end  contemplated. 

(/)  "We  recommend  to  all  the  members  of  our  reli- 
gious denomination,  not  only  to  permit,  but  to  facilitate 
and  encourage  the  instruction  of  their  slaves  in  the  princi- 
ples and  duties  of  the  Christian  religion ;  by  granting  them 
liberty  to  attend  on  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  when 
they  have  opportunity ;  by  favouring  the  instruction  of 
them  in  the  Sabbath-school,  wherever  those  schools  can  be 
formed ;  and  by  gi'^ang  them  all  other  proper  advantages 
for  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  their  duty  both  to  God  and 
to  man.  We  are  perfectly  satisfied,  that  it  is  incumbent  on 
all  Christians  to  communicate  religious  instruction  to  those 
who  are  under  their  authority,  so  that  the  doing  of  this  in 
the  case  before  us,  so  far  from  operating,  as  some  have 
apprehended  that  it  might,  as  an  incitement  to  insubordi- 
nation and  insurrection,  would,  on  the  contrary,  operate  as 
the  most  powerful  means  for  the  prevention  of  those  evils. 

{g)  "We  enjoin  it  on  all  Church  Sessions  and  Presby- 
teries, under  the  care  of  this  Assembly,  to  discountenance, 
and  as  far  as  possible  to  prevent,  all  cruelty  of  whatever 
kind  in  the  treatment  of  slaves :  especially  the  cruelty  of 
separating  husband  and  wife,  parents  and  children,  and 
that  which  consists  in  selling  slaves  to  those  who  will 
either  themselves  deprive  these  unhappy  people  of  the 
blessings  of  the  gospel,  or  who  will  transport  them  to 
places  where  the  gospel  is  not  proclaimed,  or  where  it  is 
forbidden  to  slaves  to  attend  upon  its  institutions.  And 
if  it  shall  ever  happen  that  a  Christian  professor  in  our 
communion  shall  sell  a  slave  who  is  also  in  communion  and 
good  standing  with  our  Church,  contrary  to  his  or  her  will 
and  inclination,  it  ought  immediately  to  claim  the  particu- 
lar attention  of  the  proper  Church  judicature ;  and  unless 
there  be  such  peculiar  circumstances  attending  the  case  as 
can  but  seldom  happen,  it  ought  to  be  followed,  without 


22  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

delay,  by  a  suspension  of  the  olFender  from  all  the  privi- 
leges of  the  Church  till  he  repent,  and  make  all  the  repa- 
ration in  his  power  to  the  injured  party." — Mimites,  1818, 
p.  692. 

From  1818  to  1835  this  clear  and  comprehensive 
declaration  of  the  church,  so  unanimously  adopted, 
seemed  to  settle  the  question ;  and  we  find  no  farther 
action  on  the  records,  excepting  notices  of  good  suc- 
cess in  the  religious  instruction  of  the  slaves,  till 
this  latter  year  1835,  when  the  increasing  agitation 
over  the  country,  and  the  im]3ortunity  of  memorial- 
ists, led  the  Assembly  to  appoint  a  committee,  to 
whom  all  papers  on  the  subject  should  be  referred, 
and  who  were  instructed  to  report  to  the  next  Gen- 
eral Assembly.  This  committee  consisted  of  "  Dr. 
Miller,  Dr.  Beman,  Dr.  Hoge,  Mr.  Dickey  and  Mr. 
Witherspoon." 

In  1836,  the  committee  reported  accordingly;  and 
offered  a  brief  paper  for  adoption  by  the  Assembly — 
to  the  purport,  that  slavery  was  so  much  a  civil  in- 
stitution, and  a  subject  of  so  intense  an  agitation,  on 
which  churches  represented  in  the  Assembly  were 
so  greatly  divided,  and  in  acting  on  which  so  little 
benefit  could  enure  to  the  slaves  themselves,  that 
"  it  was  not  expedient  for  the  Assembly  to  take  any 
further  order  in  relation  to  this  subject." 

The  Rev.  James  H.  Dickey  submitted  a  minority 
report  of  great  length,  in  which  it  was  urgently  de- 
clared, that  a  dangerous  change  of  views,  since  1818, 
had  been  coming  into  the  Church,  that  slavery  "  be- 


AMERICAN   SLAVERY.  23 

gins  to  claim  a  lodgment,  not  by  indulgence  merely, 
but  as  of  right ;"  and  after  portraying  the  evils,  the 
encroachments,  and  the  perils  of  the  system,  both  to 
church  and  state,  called  on  the  Assembly  to  de- 
nounce it  as  a  "  heinous  sin,"  to  be  censured  by  the 
church,  and  to  be  abandoned  by  every  Christian 
entangled,  "  mthout  delay." 

Both  these  reports  were  spread  at  full  length  on 
the  Minutes,  and  were  made  the  order  of  the  day 
for  Monday,  a  full  week  after.  When  the  order  was 
called,  Mr.  McElhenny,  of  Lexington  Presbytery, 
Va.,  moved  to  postpone  both  reports,  and  offered 
as  a  substitute  the  following:  "Whereas,  the  subject 
of  Slavery  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  laws  of 
many  States  of  this  Union,  in  which  it  exists  under 
the  sanction  of  said  laws,  and  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States; — And,  whereas.  Slavery  is  recog- 
nised in  both  the  Old  and  JSTew  Testament  as  an  ex- 
isting relation,  and  is  not  condemned  by  the  author- 
ity of  God,  therefore,  Resolvedy  That  the  General 
Assembly  have  no  authority  to  assume  or  exercise 
jurisdiction  in  regard  to  the  existence  of  Slavery." 
AVhile  this  motion  was  under  consideration.  Dr. 
James  Hoge  moved  an  indefinite  postponement  of 
the  whole  subject,  which  was  carried,  by  a  vote  of 
154  yeas,  to  87  nays,  and  4  who  declined  voting. 
The  form  of  this  motion  is  as  follows : 

"Inasmuch  as  the  Constitution  of  the  Presbj^terian 
Church,  in  its  preliminar}^  and  fundamental  principles,  de- 
clares that  no  Church  judicatory  ought  to  pretend  to  make 


24  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

laws,  to  bind  the  conscience,  in  virtue  of  their  own  author- 
ity :  and  as  the  urgency  of  the  business  of  the  Assembly, 
and  the  shortness  of  the  time  during  which  they  can  con- 
tinue in  session,  render  it  impossible  to  deliberate  and  de- 
cide judiciously  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in  its  relations  to 
the  Church ;  therefore,  resolved,  that  this  whole  subject  be 
indefinitely  postponed."— i/mi^^es,  1836,  pp.  247,  248,  272, 
273. 


This  resolute  postponement,  the  convulsion  of  that 
Old  and  New  School  controversy  on  doctrine  and 
policy,  which  now  submerged  all  other  agitations, 
the  compact  and  homogeneous  feeling  which  resulted 
from  the  separation  that  ensued,  and  the  energy 
with  which  the  Church  girded  herself  anew  for  the 
apostolic  responsibilities  upon  her,  all  contributed  to 
give  unity  and  rest  in  the  Presbyterian  Church 
for  nine  years;  while  nearly  all  other  evangelical 
churches  were  falling  to  pieces  over  the  question  of 
slavery. 

The  reproach  of  ultra  conservatism,  cast  upon  the 
Old  School,  is  unfair.  The  first  deliberate  and  de- 
termined postponement  of  action  on  Slavery,  as  we 
here  see,  was  by  an  Assembly  in  which  the  New 
School  influence  predominated^that  of  1836.  But 
this  was  by  no  means  a  party  vote:. and  neither 
branch  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  ever  shunned 
the  responsibility  of  meeting  the  question  fairly,  at 
every  new  phase,  however  diverse  the  tendency 
came  to  appear,  after  the  division  of  1838.  We 
come  now  to  find  the  Old  School  General  Assembly, 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  25 

instead  of  standing  still  upon  the  noble  record,  which 
was  already  so  complete,  facing  new  issues,  and  the 
most  complicated  forms,  in  which  an  overheated 
public  sentiment,  North  and  South,  could  press  the 
vexing  problem  on  her  deliberations. 

YI.  Tlie  action  of  1845,  moderating  hetioeen  ex- 
tremes of  radical  abolitionism  on  the  one  hand,  and 
pro-slavery  fanaticism  on  the  other. 

A  large  number  and  variety  of  memorials,  nearly 
all  on  one  side,  with  greater  or  less  vehemence  of 
anti-slavery  sentiment,  came  up  to  the  General  As- 
sembly of  this  year,  from  different  quarters  of  the 
Church ;  and  it  was  resolved,  that  a  special  com- 
mittee of  seven  should  be  appointed  to  consider  and 
report  on  these  papers.  Messrs.  N.  L.  Eice,  John 
C.  Lord,  Alex.  T.  McGill,  Drury  Lacy,  N.  H.  Hall, 
ministei^s — and  H.  H.  Leavitt  and  James  Dunlap, 
ddey^s — constituted  this  committee.  The  chairman 
was  then  a  pastor  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati.  Of  tlie 
remaining  six^  four  were  Northern  men,  and  two 
Southern.  After  long  and  careful  consultation,  the 
following  report  was  submitted,  and  adopted  by  the 
Assembly : 

"The  committee  to  whom  were  referred  the  memorials  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  beg  leave  to  submit  the  folio Aving  re- 
port: 

[a)  "The  memorialists  may  be  divided  into  three  classes, 
viz. 

"  1.  Those  which  represent  the  system  of  slaverj^,  as  it 
exists  in  these  United  States,  as  a  great  evil,  and  pray  this 

3 


2G  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

General  Assembly  to  adopt  measures  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  the  slaves. 

"  2.  Those  which  ask  the  Assembly  to  receive  memorials 
on  the  subject  of  slavery,  to  allow  a  full  discussion  of  it, 
and  to  enjoin  upon  the  members  of  our  Church,  residing  in 
States  whose  laws  forbid  the  slaves  being  taught  to  read, 
to  seek  by  all  lawful  means  the  repeal  of  those  laws. 

"  3.  Those  which  represent  slavery  as  a  moral  evil,  a  hei- 
nous sin  in  the  sight  of  Grod,  calculated  to  bring  upon  the 
Church  the  curse  of  God,  and  calling  for  the  exercise  of 
discipline  in  the  case  of  those  who  persist  in  maintaining  or 
justifying  the  relation  of  master  to  slaves. 

{b)  "  The  question  which  is  now  unhappily  agitating  and 
dividing  other  branches  of  the  Church,  and  which  is  pressed 
upon  the  attention  of  the  Assembly  by  one  of  the  three 
classes  of  memorialists  just  named,  is,  whether  the  holding 
of  slaves  is,  under  all  circumstances,  a  heinous  sin,  calling 
for  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 

(c)  "The  Church  of  Christ  is  a  spiritual  body,  whose  ju- 
risdiction extends  to  the  religious  faith  and  moral  conduct 
of  her  members.  She  cannot  legislate,  where  Christ  has 
not  legislated,  nor  make  terms  of  membership  which  he 
has  not  made.  The  question,  therefore,  which  this  Assem- 
bly is  called  to  decide,  is  this  :  Do  the  Scriptures  teach  that 
the  holding  of  slaves,  without  regard  to  circumstances,  is  a 
sin,  the  renunciation  of  which  should  be  made  a  condition 
of  membership  in  the  Church  of  Christ  ? 

{d)  "It  is  impossible  to  answer  this  question  in  the  af- 
firmative, without  contradicting  some  of  the  plainest  decla- 
rations of  the  word  of  God.  That  slavery  existed  in  the 
days  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  is  an  admitted  fact.  That 
they  did  not  denounce  the  relation  itself  as  sinful,  as  incon- 
sistent with  Christianity :  that  slaveholders  were  admitted 
to  membership  in  the  churches  organized  by  the  apostles ; 
that  whilst  they  were  required  to  treat  their  slaves  with 
kindness,  and  as  rational,  accountable,  immortal  beings, 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  27 

and,  if  Christians,  as  brethren  in  the  Lord,  they  were  not 
commanded  to  emancipate  them  ;  that  slaves  were  required 
to  be  '  obedient  to  their  masters  according  to  the  flesh,  with 
fear  and  trei»bhng,  with  singleness  of  heart  as  unto  Christ, ' 
are  facts  which  meet  the  eye  of  every  reader  of  the  New 
Testament.  This  Assembly  cannot,  therefore,  denounce 
the  holding  of  slaves  as  necessarily  a  heinous  and  scandal- 
ous sin,  calculated  to  bring  upon  the  Church  the  curse  of 
Grod,  without  charging  the  apostles  of  Christ  with  conniv- 
ing at  sin,  introducing  into  the  Church  such  sinners,  and 
thus  bringing  upon  them  the  curse  of  the  Almighty. 

(e)  "  In  so  saying,  however,  the  Assembly  are  not  to  be 
understood  as  denying  that  there  is  evil  connected  with  sla- 
very. Much  less  do  they  approve  those  defective  and  op- 
pressive laws  by  which,  in  some  of  the  States,  it  is  regu- 
lated. Nor  would  they  by  any  means  countenance  the  traffic 
in  slaves  for  the  sake  of  gain  ;  the  separation  of  husbands 
and  wives,  parents  and  children,  for  the  sake  of  'filthy 
lucre,'  or  for  the  convenience  of  the  master;  or  cruel  treat- 
ment of  slaves,  in  any  respect.  Eveiy  Christian  and  phi- 
lanthropist certainly  should  seek  by  all  peaceable  and  law- 
ful means,  the  repeal  of  unjust  and  oppressive  laws,  and 
the  amendment  of  such  as  are  defective,  so  as  to  protect 
the  slaves  from  cruel  treatment  by  wicked  men,  and  secure 
to  them  the  right  to  receive  religious  instruction. 

(/)  "  Nor  is  the  Assembly  to  be  understood  as  counte- 
nancing the  idea  that  masters  may  regard  their  servants  as 
mere  property,  and  not  as  human  beings,  rational,  account- 
able, immortal.  The  Scriptures  prescribe  not  only  the  du- 
ties of  servants,  but  of  masters  also,  warning  the  latter  to 
discharge  those  duties,  '  knowing  that  their  Master  is  in 
heaven,  neither  is  there  respect  of  persons  with  him.' 

ig)  "The  Assembly  intend  simply  to  say,  that  since 
Christ  and  his  inspired  apostles  did  not  make  the  holding 
of  slaves  a  bar  to  communion,  we,  as  a  court  of  Christ, 
have  no  authority  to  do  so  ;  since  they  did  not  attempt  to 


28  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

remove  it  from  the  Church  by  legislation,  we  have  no  au- 
thority to  legislate  on  the  subject.  We  feel  constrained 
further  to  say,  that  however  desirable  it  may  be  to  amelio- 
rate the  condition  of  the  slaves  in  the  Southeun  and  West- 
ern States,  or  to  remove  slavery  from  our  country,  these 
objects,  we  are  fully  persuaded,  can  never  be  secured  by 
ecclesiastical  legislation.  Much  less  can  they  be  attained 
by  those  indiscriminate  denunciations  against  slaveholders, 
without  regard  to  their  character  or  circumstances,  which 
have  to  so  great  an  extent  characterized  the  movements  of 
modern  abolitionists,  which  so  far  from  removing  the  evils 
complained  of,  tend  only  to  perpetuate  and  aggravate  them. 

"The  apostles  of  Christ  sought  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  slaves,  not  by  denouncing  and  excommunicating 
their  masters,  but  by  teaching  both  masters  and  slaves  the 
glorious  doctrines  of  the  gospel,  and  enjoining  upon  each 
the  discharge  of  their  relative  duties.  Thus  only  can  the 
Church  of  Christ,  as  such,  now  improve  the  condition  of 
the  slaves  in  our  country. 

{h)  "As  to  the  extent  of  the  evils  involved  in  slavery, 
and  the  best  methods  of  removing  them,  various  oi)inions 
prevail,  and  neither  the  Scriptures  nor  our  constitution  au- 
thorize this  body  to  prescribe  any  particular  course  to  be 
pursued  by  the  churches  under  our  care.  The  Assembly 
cannot  but  rejoice,  however,  to  learn  that  the  Ministers  and 
Churches  in  the  slaveholding  States  are  awaking  to  a 
deeper  sense  of  their  obligation  to  extend  to  the  slave  pop- 
ulation generally  the  means  of  grace,  and  many  slavehold- 
ers not  professedly  religious  favour  this  object.  We  earn- 
estly exhort  them  to  abound  more  and  more  in  this  good 
work.  We  would  exhort  every  believing  master  to  remem- 
ber that  his  Master  is  also  in  heaven,  and  in  view  of  all  the 
circumstances  in  which  he  is  placed,  to  act  in  the  spirit  of 
the  golden  rule  ;  '  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  tlicm.' 

"In  view  of  the  above  stated  principles  and  facts, 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  29 

^'■Resolved,  1.  That  the  Greneral  Assembl}^  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  in  the  United  States  was  originally  organ- 
ized, and  has  since  continued  the  bond  of  union  in  the 
Church,  upon  the  conceded  principle  that  the  existence  of 
domestic  slavery,  under  the  circumstances  in  which  it  is 
found  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  country,  is  no  bar  to 
Christian  communion. 

"  2.  That  the  petitions  that  ask  the  Assembly  to  make 
the  holding  of  slaves  in  itself  a  matter  of  discipline,  do  vir- 
tually require  this  judicatory  to  dissolve  itself,  and  aban- 
don the  organization,  under  which,  by  the  Divine  blessing, 
it  has  so  long  prospered.  The  tendency  is  evidently  to  sep- 
arate the  northern  from  the  southern  portion  of  the 
Church  ;  a  result  which  every  good  citizen  must  deplore, 
as  tending  to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  of  our  beloved 
country,  and  which  every  enlightened  Christian  will  oppose 
as  bringing  about  a  ruinous  and  unnecessary  schism  be- 
tween brethren  who  maintain  a  common  faith. 

"The  yeas  and  naj^s  being  ordered,  were  recorded." 
[Yeas  168,  Nays  13,  Excused  4. ]—i¥m2(ie5,  1845,  pp.  16-18. 

The  foreign  correspondence  of  the  same  Assembly 
contains  large  paragraphs,  which  illustrate  the  views 
and  feelings  of  that  body,  and  were  approved  with 
equal  or  gfeater  unanimity.  (Committee  on  Foreign 
Correspondence — Messrs.  McGill,  Hope,  Bayless, 
Sinclair,  and  Thorpe.)  The  following  is  extracted 
from  the  letter  to  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland : 

"We  are  gratified  exceedingly  with  the  spirit  of  can- 
dour and  inquiry  which  pervades  your  document  on  the 
subject  of  slavery,  and  leads  us  to  the  hope  that  we  shall 
soon  be  able  to  acquaint  our  noble  brethren  in  Scotland 
with  the  true  position  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this 
country. 


30  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

' '  That  responsibility  for  the  evils  of  American  slavery 
is  shared  by  our  brethren  of  Great  Britain  to  some  extent — 
that  you  are  restrained  from  peremptory  decision  on  the 
question  of  our  particular  duty,  by  ignorance  of  facts  and 
circumstances,  and  that  you  appreciate  so  much  the  difl&- 
culties  of  our  position,  as  to  admit  that  a  different  course 
from  that  of  the  British  churches  may  be  justified  among 
us  for  the  present,  are  generous  sentiments ;  and  enlight- 
ened Christian  moderation,  which  prove  to  us  that  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  is  as  much  ennobled  by  elevation 
above  the  prejudices  that  surround  her,  as  by  a  memorable 
exodus  from  the  oppression  that  enthralled  her.  Could 
we  allay  excitement,  and  restrain  impatience,  and  correct 
misunderstanding  among  our  brethren  of  the  British 
churches,  we  have  no  doubt  that  our  course  in  this  most 
delicate  and  difficult  subject  would  be  so  entirely  approved 
that  no  intimation  of  ultimate  severance  on  this  account 
would  any  more  alloy  the  happiness  which  your  correspond- 
ence affords. 

"  Our  modes  of  thinking  in  this  country  have  not  been 
moulded  by  anything  like  a  civil  establishment  of  religion ; 
by  any  such  connexion  of  church  and  state  as  induces  a  re- 
ciprocal legislation  between  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical 
commonwealth.  The  state  never  interferes  with  us  as  a 
church,  either  to  cherish  our  doctrines  or  to.  control  our 
privileges ;  and  she  expects  in  return  that  we  meddle  not 
with  her  civil  and  domestic  regulations ;  one  of  which  is 
slavery.  Every  man  in  the  church  here  has  a  political  right 
and  power.  As  a  citizen,  he  has  the  utmost  opportunity 
for  contending  against  every  social,  civil,  moral  wrong, 
which  the  institutions  of  this  country  may  ordain  or  allow. 
But,  as  a  member  of  the  church,  he  belongs  to  a  kingdom 
not  of  this  world,  that  has  always  been  prospered  in  the 
apostolic  and  reforming  times,  by  separation  in  counsel 
from  '  the  powers  that  be,'  and  which,  while  it  fails  not  to 
witness  against  the  sins  of  the  land,  would  rather,  as  in 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  31 

your  own  illustrious  example,  resign  even  the  guardiansliip 
of  these  powers  than  permit  civil  and  spiritual  enactments 
either  to  clash  or  mingle  together. 

"We  learn  our  duty,  dear  brethren,  not  only  from  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  Providence  in  our  political  insti- 
tutions, but  from  the  great  charter  of  the  church  itself. 
Here  we  have  a  religion  of  great  principles,  which  it  be- 
hooves us  to  promulgate  with  all  possible  industry,  energy, 
and  faithfulness — principles,  which  in  the  end  will  over- 
throw every  form  of  oppression  that  is  incompatible  with 
the  inalienable  rights  of  man.  Beyond  the  assertion  of 
these  principles,  and  their  vigorous  application  to  all  the 
existing  relations  of  society  around  us,  we  think  it  not  only 
inexpedient,  but  unwarrantable  and  presumptuous,  for  any 
ecclesiastical  court  to  pronounce  either  dogma  or  precept. 
We  dare  not  contract  the  bond  of  union  among  brethren 
more  than  Christ  has  contracted  it,  nor  exclude  from  the 
pale  of  our  communion,  members  that  merely  hold  a  rela- 
tion which  Christ  and  his  apostles  did  not  declare,  among 
the  many  specific  declarations  against  prevailing  sins,  to 
be  incompatible  with  Christian  fellowship.  Slavery  ex- 
isted then  as  well  as  now,  with  at  least  equal  atrocity ;  and 
in  our  opposition  to  its  evils,  we  desire  to  treat  it  as  they 
did,  rather  than  reduce  their  broad  precepts  to  that  mi- 
nute kind  of  legislation,  which  engenders  fanaticism,  dis- 
tracts and  enfeebles  the  church,  and  defeats  the  eventual 
triumph  of  the  very  princij^les  it  proposes  to  enforce. 

' '  Enclosed,  we  send  you  a  copy  of  a  preamble  and  reso- 
lutions on  this  subject,  which  we  have  just  adopted  with 
great  unanimity  and  deliberate  firmness  ;  from  which  you 
will  learn  our  determination  to  abide  by  the  example  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles — to  address  ourselves,  in  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  more  than  ever,  to  the  work  of  meliorating 
evils  we  cannot  redress — improving  a  relation  we  cannot 
di^ssolve,  and  disseminating  among  masters  and  slaves  that 
pure  gospel,  whose  heavenly  influence  never  fails,  when  free 


32  AMERICAN   SLAVERY. 

from  the  extravagance  of  man,  to  purify  every  institution 
which  God  approves,  and  demoUsh  every  system  that  is 
opposed  to  the  honour  of  his  name,  and  the  best  interests 
of  the  human  race." — Minutes,  p.  44. 

Extract  from  the  letter  to  the  General  Assembly 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Ireland. 

"  You  refer  us  to  what  you  call  '  an  evil  which  has  long 
disfigured  our  civil  polity;'  and  submit  to  our  considera- 
tion your  resolution  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  We  re- 
ceived your  communication  on  this  subject  with  all  the 
frankness  and  kindness  that  have  dictated  your  whole  let- 
ter. There  is  no  disposition  on  our  part  either  to  repel  the 
counsel  of  brethren  abroad,  or  evade  responsibility  and  dis- 
cussion on  this  momentous  question  at  home.  We  enclose 
to  you  a  preamble  and  resolutions  which  we  have  just 
adopted,  with  a  nearly  unanimous  vote,  in  which  you  will 
see,  that  we  are  not  contented  to  slumber  amidst  the  evils 
connected  with  slavery,  nor  to  shun  investigation  of  our  duty 
to  the  bottom. 

"  You  are  strangers,  we  presume,  in  a  great  measure,  to 
the  principal  cause  of  the  aggravations  which  attend  do- 
mestic slavery  in  this  country,  such  as  the  severity  of  par- 
ticular laws  enacted  in  the  slaveholding  States,  and  the  ex- 
treme sensibility  with  which  many  of  our  fellow-citizens 
there  refuse  to  receive  advice,  and  entertain  discussion. 
That  cause  is  mainly  the  vehemence  and  fanatical  intoler- 
ance, with  which  many,  in  what  are  called  the  free  States, 
urge  on  the  South  instant  abolition,  without  regard  to  cir- 
cumstances, consequences,  or  even  warrant  from  the  word 
of  Grod  itself  We  hope  that  a  better  mind,  and  one  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  paper  we  send  you,  will  soon  pervade 
every  part  of  our  otherwise  harmonious  country ;  and  suf- 
fer that  'knowledge  of  Christianity,'  you  mention,  to  pen- 
etrate all  relations  existing  among  us ;  and  exert  its  native, 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  33 

free,  transforming  power,  over  every  institution,  which 
either  necessity  may  sufier,  or  wisdom  perpetuate  among 
men." — Minutes^  1855,  p.  46. 

VII.  Refusal  to  make  any  further  deliverance. 

Notwithstandiug  the  clear  and  decided  testimony 
of  1845,  in  so  many  diiferent  forms,  memorials  on 
the  subject  of  slavery  were  sent  up  to  the  i^sembly 
of  1846,  in  consequence  of  an  impression  upon  cer- 
tain minds,  that  the  action  of  1845  was  inconsistent 
with  that  of  1818.  After  a  due  reference  and  care- 
ful consideration  of  these  memorials,  the  following 
record  was  made,  viz.: 

"  Our  church  has  from  time  to  time,  during  a  period  of 
nearly  sixty  years,  expressed  its  views  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  During  all  this  period  it  has  held  and  uttered 
substantially  the  same  sentiments.  Beheving  that  this 
uniform  testimony  is  true,  and  capable  of  vindication  from 
the  word  of  Grod,  the  Assembly  is  at  the  same  time  clearly 
of  the  opinion  that  it  has  already  deliberately  and  solemnly 
spoken  on  this  subject  with  sufficient  fulness  and  clearness. 
Therefore, 

^''  Resolved^  That  no  further  action  upon  this  subject  is  at 
present  needed. ' ' 

This  minute  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  119  to  33, 
the  yeas  and  nays  being  recorded. 

"The  following  resolution  was  then  offered  by  the  Rev. 
R.  M.  White,  and  was  adopted,  [without  division :] 

''''Resolved^  That  in  the  judgment  of  this  House,  the  ac- 
tion of  the  General  Assembly  of  1845  was  not  intended  to 
deny  or  rescind  the  testimony  often  uttered  by  the  General 
Assemblies  previous  to  that  date." — Minutes^  1846,  pp. 
206,  207. 


34  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

As  a  further  exponent  of  tlie  mind  of  tliat  Assem- 
bly, the  following  extract  from  another  letter  to  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Irish  Presbyterian  Clmrch, 
is  of  interest  and  value.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  K.  J.  Breckinridge,  chairman,  that  year, 
of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Correspondence : 

"As  it  regards  the  subject  of  negro  slaverj^,  now  tole- 
rated in  about  one-half  of  the  confederate  States  of  this 
Union,  it  is,  perhaps,  due  to  ourselves  and  to  you,  seeing 
the  deep  interest  you  manifest  in  the  subject,  and  the  ob- 
viously erroneous  opinions  you  have  formed,  both  of  it  and 
our  relations  to  it,  that  we  should  make  a  somewhat  more 
distinct  statement  than  is  contained  in  our  former  letter. 

"  The  relations  of  negro  slavery,  as  it  exists  in  the  States 
that  tolerate  it,  are  twofold.  Chiefly,  it  is  an  institution 
purely  civil,  depending  absolutely  upon  the  will  of  the  civil 
power  in  the  States  respectively  in  which  it  exists ;  sec- 
ondly, it  has  various  aspects  and  relations,  purely  or  mainly 
moral,  in  regard  to  which  the  several  States  permit  a 
greater  or  less  degree  of  intervention.  Touching  the 
former  aspect  of  the  subject,  this  Greneral  Assembly  has  no 
sort  of  power  any  more  than  we  should  have,  if  we  met  in 
Great  Britain,  over  the  institutions  of  Hereditary  Monar- 
chy, or  Aristocracy,  or  a  thousand  other  things,  which,  as 
republicans,  we  unanimously  condemn,  but  which  you,  as 
loyal  subjects,  cordially  approve.  Touching  the  latter  as- 
pect of  the  subject,  and  especially  as  regards  the  conduct 
of  ministers  and  members  of  our  own  church,  we  are  of 
course,  deeply  concerned :  and  we  beg  to  assure  you,  that 
since  the  foundation  of  our  church  on  this  continent  to  the 
present  moment,  it  has  always  recognized  and  tried  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  which  Grod,  in  his  providence,  has  cast 
upon  it,  in  this  regard.  That  we  have  done  all  we  could, 
much  less  all  we  should  have  done,  we  will  no  more  ven- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  35 

ture  to  assert,  than  we  suppose  you  would  contend  that 
you  had  fully  discharged  your  duties,  during  the  two  past 
centuries,  to  the  millions  of  Popish  idolaters  who  dwell 
around  you.  What  we  say  is,  that  we  think  we  compre- 
hend our  duty,  in  this  respect,  and  that,  from  the  begin- 
ning, our  church  has  openly  recognized  it  and  tried  to  per- 
form it,  both  to  the  masters  and  to  their  slaves :  and  we 
add,  that  it  seems  to  be  wholly  impossible  for  our  brethren  in 
foreign  parts  to  understand  what  we  can  do,  or  should  do, 
better  than  we  do  ourselves. 

"  As  to  the  institution  of  slavery  in  itself  considered,  and 
founding  our  judgment  upon  the  condition  in  which  it  has 
been  exhibited,  first  and  last,  in  most  of  the  States  of  this 
Union ;  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  has 
never  failed  to  manifest  a  profound  interest,  nor  shrunk 
from  bearing  a  clear  and  constant  testimony.  If  we  have 
the  misfortune  to  differ  from  you  in  regard  to  any  part  of 
the  subject,  of  course  we  regret  it.  But  you  can  hardly 
expect  us  to  change  our  ancient,  deliberate,  and  settled  tes- 
timony on  a  subject,  for  a  long  time  and  very  carefully  ex- 
amined ;  nor  does  it  appear  to  us  to  be  for  edification,  that 
our  sister  churches  in  foreign  countries,  should  steadily 
and  strenuously  condemn  us  in  regard  to  matters  they  can- 
not possibly  understand  as  well  as  we  do,  nor  possibly  feel 
in  regard  to  them  so  deep  and  solemn  a  responsibility  as 
we  do.  We  have  therefore  only  to  say,  that  our  fathers 
from  the  beginning,  as  we  ourselves  now,  and  the  church 
constantly,  have,  held  and  testified,  that  slavery  as  it  has 
long  existed,  and  does  still  exist  in  many  of  the  States  of 
this  Union,  cannot  scripturally  be  made  a  term  of  Christian 
or  ministerial  communion  ;  and  that  Qn  the  other  hand,  it 
is  an  institution  which  this  church  never  did,  and  does  not 
now  set  itself  to  defend.  This  is  the  substance,  very  briefly, 
of  the  testimony  borne  from  generation  to  generation  by 
the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America 
upon  this  point. 


36  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

"As  we  have  already  said,  our  i)urpose  simply  is  to 
make  a  statement  by  which  you  may  understand  exactly 
how  this  church  has  always  viewed  this  subject ;  you  will 
then  act  as  your  sense  of  duty  and  propriety  will  dictate. 
We  have  of  course  no  idea  of  discussing  at  large  a  question 
of  this  sort  with  you — much  less  of  defending,  in  a  brief 
letter  to  you,  our  conduct  or  our  faith,  our  Church  or  our 
country,  against  the  calumnies  of  ignorant  or  corrupt  men, 
either  in  your  country  or  ours.  It  is  because  we  love  and 
respect  you,  that,  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
we  feel  constrained  to  say  a  word  on  the  subject ;  and  it  is 
because  we  are  fully  convinced  of  the  truth  of  our  opinions, 
the  righteousness  of  our  testimony,  and  the  propriety  of 
our  conduct,  that  we  have  felt  it  needful  to  do  nothing 
more  than  state  distinctly  our  true  position.  For  the  rest, 
one  thing  is  beyond  all  controversy  ;  notwithstanding  our 
unworthiness,  our  God  has  smiled  on  us,  and  has  so  blessed 
and  enlarged  us,  that  in  about  a  century  and  a  half  he  has 
brought  us  from  a  condition  so  feeble,  that  we  had  but  a 
single  minister  of  the  gospel,  to  be,  perhaps,  the  most  nu- 
merous body  of  orthodox  Presbyterians  on  the  face  of  the 
earth ;  and  by  his  grace,  we  believe  we  are  more  united  this 
day  than  we  ever  were  before,  and  as  fully  resolved,  by 
the  help  of  Grod,  to  go  forward  in  the  glorious  work  to 
which,  as  we  trust,  we  have  been  divinely  called." — Min- 
utes, p.  223. 

In  1848,  another  letter  was  received  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  sitting  at  Baltimore,"  from  the  Irish 
Church,  in  answer  to  the  foregoing  letter  of  1846 ; 
severe  almost  to  acrimony  in  its  tone ;  and  yet,  read 
and  answered — the  letter  and  answer  being  both 
published  in  the  Appendix  to  the  INIinutes  of  that 
year.  The  following  is  the  portion  relating  to 
slavery,  as  reported  by  Dr.  John  M.  Krebs,  Chair- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  37 

man  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Correspondence^ 
and  adopted  by  the  Assembly,  viz. : 

"  With  respect  to  the  matter  to  which  the  greater  part 
of  your  letter  is  devoted,  we  would  simply  observe  that  we 
have  heretofore  expressed  to  you  our  position ;  and  we 
would  refer  you  to  our  former  statements  on  that  subject. 
If  we  have  decHued  any  further  discussion  with  you,  in  re- 
lation to  slavery  in  the  United  States,  it  is  not  because  we 
shrink  from  any  discussion  of  the  question  of  slavery,  or  as 
to  the  question  of  our  own  duty  in  relation  to  it.  We 
trust  that  we  are  influenced  neither  by  timidity,  nor  by  any 
apprehension  that  we  cannot  sustain  the  conclusions  we 
have  deliberately  adopted.  All  that  we  mean  to  say  is, 
that,  as  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings  is  before  our  eyes,  as 
we  have  anxiously  examined  the  word  of  Grod  to  discover 
the  principles  which  it  discloses,  as  we  have  endeavoured 
to  pursue  a  course  which  we  believe  to  be  not  only  strictly 
conformable  to  the  example  and  teaching  of  the  Bible, 
but  to  have  been  approved  of  Heaven,  in  the  actual  condi- 
tion of  slavery  as  it  has  been  hitherto  influenced  by  the 
uniform  testimonies  of  our  church,  both  in  the  treatment 
of  slaves  and  in  the  progress  of  emancipation;  and  as 
there  is  nothing  in  the  arguments  you  employ,  whether 
they  involve  your  interpretation  of  the  Scripture,  or  your 
impnessions  with  respect  to  the  aspects  of  this  institution 
as  it  exists  in  the  Southern  part  of  this  country,  or  to  our 
own  relations  to  it,  with  which  we  have  not  been  entirely 
familiar,  long  before  you  deemed  it  needful  to  call  our  at- 
tention to  it,  we  do  not  regard  it  for  edification  to  engage 
in  a  controversy,  or  to  protract  the  discussion  with  your 
Assembly  on  this  business." — Minutes^  p.  176. 

It  should  be  added  here,  that  in  1851,  another 
letter  on  this  subject  was  received  from  the  General 
Assembly  of  the  Presl)yterian  Church  in  Ireland, 


38  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

and  read ;  and  a  special  committee,  consisting  of 
Messrs.  Leyburn,  Cheeseman,  Van  Rensselaer,  and 
Martien,  was  appointed  to  answer  it,  "  at  their  dis- 
cretion." Still  another  came  from  the  same  body 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  1864,  and  though  pe- 
culiarly offensive  in  its  expressions,  was  read,  and  re- 
ferred to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Correspondence, 
of  which  Dr.  Gardiner  Spring  was  Chairman.  The 
Committee  recommended  that  this  letter  "be  not 
answered ;"  and  this  recommendation  was  adopted. — 
Minutes  of  1854,  p.  41. 

But  the  most  formal  determination  of  the  General 
Assembly  to  decline  further  agitation  of  the  subject 
at  home,  was  adopted  by  the  Assembly  of  1849,  sit- 
ting at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  It  was  on  a  report  from 
the  Committee  on  Bills  and  Overtures;  and  the 
minute  is  as  follows,  viz. : 

"A  Memorial  from  the  Presbytery  of  Chilicothe,  pray- 
ing this  Greneral  Assembly  not  only  to  declare  it  to  be  a  sin, 
but  to  enjoin  upon  all  inferior  courts,  a  course  of  discipline 
which  will  remove  it  from  our  church.  Also,  a  Memorial 
from  the  Presbytery  of  Coshocton,  asking  the  Assembly  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  collect  and  report  to  the  next  As- 
sembly, statistics  on  this  subject,  and  digest  a  plan  of  abo- 
lition to  be  adopted  by  our  church.  Also,  a  Memorial 
from  the  Presbytery  of  Erie,  asking  the  Assembly  to  alter 
sundry  terms  and  passages  in  the  Act  of  1845,  relating  to 
slavery. ' ' 

In  answer  to  these  Memorials,  the  Committee  offer  the 
following  resolutions  for  adoption  by  this  Assembly,  (which 
were  adopted) : 

"1.  That  the  principles  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  on 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  39 

the  subject  of  slaverj^  are  already  set  forth  in  repeated  dec- 
larations, so  full  and  so  explicit  as  to  need  no  further  ex- 
position. 

"2.  That,  in  view  of  the  civil  and  domestic  nature  of 
this  institution,  and  the  competency  of  secular  legislatures 
alone  to  remove  it ;  and  in  view  of  the  earnest  inquiry  and 
deep  agitation  on  the  subject,  which  we  now  observe  in  one 
or  more  commonwealths  of  our  country  where  slavery  ex- 
ists, it  be  considered  peculiarly  improper  and  inexpedient 
for  this  General  Assembly  to  attempt  or  propose  measures 
in  the  work  of  emancipation. 

"3.  That  all  necessary  and  proper  provision  is  already 
made,  for  the  just  exercise  of  discipline,  upon  those  who 
neglect  or  violate  the  mutual  duties  of  master  and  servant ; 
and  the  Greneral  Assemblj^  is  always  ready  to  enforce  these 
provisions,  when  the  unfaithfulness  of  any  inferior  court 
is  made  manifest,  by  record,  or  appeal,  or  complaint. 

"4.  We  rejoice  to  believe  that  the  action  of  former 
Assemblies,  so  far  from  aiding  or  allowing  the  iniquitous 
oppression  of  man  by  his  fellow  man,  has  been  steadHy 
promoting  amelioration  in  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  by 
winning  the  confidence  of  masters,  in  our  freedom  from  fa- 
naticism, and  by  stimulating  the  slaveholder  and  his  pas- 
tor alike,  to  labour  in  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
blacks. 

"5.  That  it  be  enjoined  on  Presbyteries  situated  in 
slaveholding  States  to  continue  and  increase  their  exer- 
tions for  the  religious  instruction  of  slaves,  and  to  report 
distinctly,  in  their  annual  Narratives  to  the  General  As- 
sembly, the  state  of  religion  among  the  coloured  popula- 
tion."—JlTwi^e-s  of  1849,  p.  254. 

These  resolutions  were  adopted  with  great  una- 
nimity. Four  members  protested  against  them,  and 
the  protest  was  admitted  to  record  "without  an- 


40  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

In  1850,  the  subject  was  again  urged  by  over- 
tures, but  was  promptly  laid  on  the  table ;  the  mind 
of  the  church  being  now  firmly  resolved  to  try  in 
peace  what  results  could  be  gained,  by  a  faithful  n]}- 
plication  of  the  principles  and  policy  that  had  been 
so  often  declared  and  so  fiilly  promulgated. 

VIII.  Results  of  all  the  previous  action,  and  con- 
sequent refusal  to  agitate  the  sul)ject  any  more. 

Peace  for  sixteen  years  on  the  most  intensely  agi- 
tating subject  of  the  age — arising  from  no  compro- 
mise beyond  what  these  documents  reveal,  was  itself 
a  grand  result,  to  signalize  that  visible  unity  in  Zion, 
which  her  Builder  wills,  and  gloriously  constructs, 
out  of  the  most  diverse  civilizations  and  tendencies. 
But  these  sixteen  years  were  a  seed-time  of  more 
iifdustrious  occupation  for  the  interests  of  oppressed 
humanity,  than  any  other  equal  period  of  time,  in 
any  branch  of  the  church,  since  the  days  of  the 
apostles. 

In  accomplishing  these  results,  and  much  more 
that  has  no  record  on  earth,  every  arm  of  the  church 
was  vigorously  exerted.  The  Board  of  Domestic 
Missions  called  to  the  administration  of  its  great  in- 
terests a  man  who  had  earned  his  eminence  in  the 
church  mainly  as  a  preacher  to  the  slaves — the  Kev. 
C  C.  Jones,  D.  D.  During  the  whole  period  of  his 
energetic  service  in  that  office,  immense  efforts  were 
made  to  reach  the  black  population  in  slavery,  with 
tlie  benefit  of  that  guidance-  which  his  unequalled 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  41 

wisdom  111  teaching  the  negro  could  furnish.  Every 
number  of  the  Home  and  Foreign  Record  of  that 
time  bears  witness  to  the  vigour  and  success  with 
which  missionaries  were  multiplied  and  money  ex- 
pended by  this  Board,  under  the  management  of 
that  eminent  Georgian,  upon  the  fields  w^here  the 
Federal  armies  have  been  so  recently  setting  free 
these  catechumens  and  their  children. 

His  successors  in  this  office  continued  the  policy, 
until  it  grew  to  such  proportions,  that,  besides  the 
Western  Committee,  located  at  Louisville,  a  South- 
western Committee  was  organized  by  the  Assembly 
at  K'ew  Orleans — an  extension  of  Avork  which  would 
not  have  been  thought  of,  but  for  the  teeming  plan- 
tations, to  which  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  now 
a  mission  of  unparalleled  interest — alike,  in  the 
effectual  door  thrown  open,  and  the  prosperity  with 
which  God  was  blessing  the  effort. 

The  Committees,  appointed  by  the  last  General 
Assembly  to  superintend  "  the  religious  instruction 
of  the  Freedmen,"  already  find  thousands  of  the 
emancipated  seeking  instruction  from  Presbyterian 
teachers  with  intelligent  discrimination — declining 
both  Methodist  and  Baptist  instruction,  for  that 
which  will  teach  them  and  their  children  what  they 
had  been  already  taught  by  means  of  Dr.  Jones's 
"  Catechism  for  the  Oral  Instruction  of  Coloured  Per- 
sonsJ^  Who  can  measure  the  benefits,  to  humanity 
and  liberty  both,  revealed  in  this  one  fact,  as  a  fair 
exemplification   of  what  the   Presbyterian  Church 


42  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

had  done,  to  enable  this  generation  to  rejoice  in  imi- 
versal  emancipation,  without  one  convulsion  of  hor- 
ror, in  tlie  savage  excesses  of  black  men,  which  so 
many  had  feared? 

Of  course,  the  Board  of  Publication,  also,  is  now 
reaping  what  was  sown  so  liberally,  in  scattering  as 
dew-drops  over  all  the  South,  so  many  elementary 
tracts  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  slaves — in- 
cluding the  Catechism  already  referred  to,  and  Dr. 
Jones's  "  Suggestions  on  the  religious  Instruction  of 
the  Negroes,^^  and  two  series  of  '^Plantation  Ser- 
monsy  This  noble  arm  of  our  influence,  for  many 
years  before  the  war  began,  had  been  expending  on 
colportage  alone  over  the  South,  more  every  year 
than  the  whole  South  contributed  of  means  to  the 
colportage  fund. 

By  a  singular  providence,  the  first  three  Secretaries 
of  this  Board  were  brought  to  it  from  slave  States, 
where  the  condition  and  capacities  of  the  slave  were 
so  well  understood:  and  the  unquestionable  ardour 
and  ability  of  each  in  his  office  told  with  incalculable 
advantage  upon  the  elevation  of  the  negro.  And  up 
to  the  very  time  the  war  began,  the  present  Secretary, 
having  travelled  extensively  in  the  South,  in  order 
to  comprehend  its  wants,  and  see  that  the  resources 
of  the  Board,  so  lavishly  expended  in  that  direction, 
were  wisely  used,  had,  with  the  full  sanction  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  sustained  the  policy  of  his 
predecessors,  and  aimed  at  even  greater  exertions  for 
the  benefit  of  black  men. 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  43 

So,  also,  the  Board  of  Education  had  laboured, 
with  similar  zeal  and  fidelity.  The  Ashmun  Insti- 
tute is  a  monument  of  sagacious  and  devoted  inter- 
est m  behalf  of  the  negro.  For  nine  years  past,  the 
Board  of  Education  has  nurtured  this  Institution 
with  contributions,  varying  in  amount  from  three 
to  five  hundred  dollars  a  year — not  to  speak  of  the 
steady  favour,  ^Yith.  Avhich  it  has  cherished  the  in- 
fant cause  of 'religious  learning  on  the  coast  of  Af- 
rica— :especially  in  the  Republic  of  Liberia. 

Thus,  it  may  well  be  claimed,  at  every  point  of 
view,  that  if  there  be  one  thing  on  which,  more 
than  anything  else,  the  whole  energies  of  our  church 
were  converged  for  twenty  years  before  this  war  be- 
gan, it  was  the  welfare  of  slaves  in  the  territory  of 
these  United  States ;  in  that  very  way  which  has 
proved  most  effectual  in  preparing  them  for  the 
great  result  God  is  working  out,  at  present — and 
which  this  church  aimed  at  from  the  beginning — 
freedom,  mth  qualifications  to  use  and  enjoy  it. 

The  harvest  is  now  on  hand.  The  mighty  provi- 
dence of  God  is  brealving  off  the  fetters  of  the  slave. 
And  what  has  the  Presb}d;erian  Church  been  doing 
to  prepare  the  benighted  and  degraded  bondmen  for 
this  jubilant  change?  What,  in  comparison  with 
the  futility  of  her  utmost  effort,  if,  instead  of  bind- 
ing the  sections  together  in  1845,  she  had  been  sit- 
ting, like  the  Methodist  Church  at  that  very  time, 
to  divide  her  interests,  IN^orth  and  South,  in  final 
and  bitter  dissolution  ?    It  is  not  too  much,  perhaps, 


44  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

to  assert,  that  universal  emancipation,  as  ordered 
now,  will  escape  the  horrors,  which  had  always  been 
associated  with  it,  in  the  fears  of  wise  philanthro- 
pists, mainly  by  means  of  the  inculcation,  which  in 
1818  was  ordained,  and  in  1845  was  guarded  and 
guided,  by  the  wisdom  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Let  us  glean  the  evidence,  as  it  came  to  us  every 
year,  by  authority  of  the  General  Assembly.  We 
begin  with  1846. 

"  Another  cheering  token  in  the  state  of  our  church  is 
the  growing  interest  manifested  in  behalf  of  a  portion  of 
our  population,  which  in  every  part  of  our  land  has  been 
too  much  overlooked  by  Christians,  in  their  efforts  to  pro- 
mote the  Redeemer's  cause.  We  allude  to  the  coloured 
people  of  this  country.  In  the  Southern  States  especially, 
means  more  enlarged,  systematic,  and  efficient  than  have 
ever  before  been  employed,  are  now  in  active  operation,  to 
diffuse  among  them  the  knowledge  and  blessings  of  the 
great  salvation.  Several  of  our  ministers  devote  their 
whole  time  and  strength  to  this  department  of  labour,  and 
through  Grod's  blessing  with  most  cheering  success.  Nor 
are  such  efforts  confined  to  those  who  devote  themselves 
exclusively  to  this  work :  the  ministers  and  members  of  our 
church  generally  have  enlisted  in  this  work  of  faith  and  la- 
bour of  love  with  a  zeal  unprecedented  in  any  period  of  our 
church's  history,  and  which  the  Assembly  hope  will  still 
increase  from  year  to  year." — Minutes^  1846,  p.  222. 

In  1847,  the  following  is  reported  in  the  same 
way  to  the  churches : 

"In  reviewing  the  past,  we  find  that  notice  has  been 
taken  by  several  previous  Assemblies  of  the  interest  mani- 
fested in  the  religious  instruction  of  the  coloured  papula- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  45 

tion  of  our  country.  The  reports  received  this  year,  justify 
the  belief  that  this  interest  has  greatly  increased  since  the 
meeting  of  the  last  Assembly.  Almost  all  the  Presbyteries 
covering  the  ground  where  this  portion  of  our  population 
are  found  in  the  greatest  numbers,  refer  to  the  subject,  and 
speak  of  efforts  to  supply  them  with  the  means  of  grace,  as 
being  decidedly  on  the  advance.  The  following  are  speci- 
mens of  the  communications  we  have  received  on  this  sub- 
ject. The  Presbytery  of  South  Alabama  say :  ' '  Perhaps  with- 
out a  solitary  exception,  our  ministers  are  devoting  a  con- 
siderable part  of  their  labours  to  the  benefit  of  the  coloured 
population.  It  is  a  field  which  we  all  love  to  cultivate ; 
and  to  some,  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  is  intimating 
an  abundant  harvest. "  "  Most  of  our  pastors, ' '  say  the 
Presbytery  of  Charleston,  "  devote  a  part  of  their  time  to 
the  exclusive  ser\dce  of  the  blacks,  and  in  some  instances 
with  the  most  pleasing  success.  A  scheme  is  now  in  agita- 
tion, with  the  full  consent  of  the  Presbytery,  for  establish- 
ing an  African  church  in  the  city  of  Charleston."  The 
Presbytery  of  Georgia  remark,  in  relation  to  one  of  their 
number  who  devotes  his  whole  time  to  this  work:  "Du- 
ring the  year  he  has  been  blessed  with  a  revival  in  one  part 
of  his  field  of  labour.  Fourteen  professed  conversion, 
and  were  added  to  the  church. ' '  Another  brother,  in  an- 
other part  of  our  bounds,  reports  "  the  conversion  and  recep- 
tion into  the  church  to  which  he  ministers  of  eight  coloured 
persons. ' '  And  the  Presbytery  of  Hopewell  speak  of  their 
churches  generally,  as  cheerfully  yielding  the  half  of  their 
pastor's  services  to  this  department  of  labour.  They  also 
express  the  belief  that  several  churches  will  soon  be 
erected  for  the  exclusive  accommodation  of  the  coloured 
people,  and  that  the  field  will  be  occupied  as  missionary 
ground  by  at  least  one  of  their  number,  who  is  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  work.  Many  other  Presbyteries  have  ad- 
dressed us  in  substantially  the  same  language  ;  and  we  re- 
cord these  facts  as  going  to  encourage  the  hope  that  a  bet- 


46  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

ter  day  is  about  to  dawn  upon  the  interests  of  this  long 
neglected  class  of  our  people. ' ' — Minutes,  p.  408. 

In  1848,  the  Assembly  said : 

"The  interest  manifested  in  the  instruction  of  the  col- 
oured population  of  our  country,  which  former  Assemblies 
have  noticed,  seems  not  to  have  declined,  but  rather  in- 
creased. With  scarcely  an  exception,  the  Presbyteries 
covering  that  portion  of  our  country  where  this  class  of 
our  population  are  found  in  the  greatest  numbers,  speak 
of  the  interest  felt  in  this  subject  as  gaining  strength." — 
Minutes,  p.  168. 

In  1849,  the  narrative,  though  unusually  brief 
and  general,  mentions  thirty-seven  Presbyteries, 
wliich  had  shared  revivals  of  religion  during  the 
year ;  and  of  these  sixteen  were  Southern  Presbyte- 
ries.    It  adds : 

"Of  the  fruits  of  these  gracious  visitations  some  have 
been  gathered  from  our  coloured  population.  The  gospel 
is  preached  to  them,  and  God  makes  it  effectual.  We  are 
glad  to  learn  that  their  spiritual  condition  is  exciting  a 
deeper  and  more  extensive  interest  than  heretofore,  and 
engages  special  labour.  Several  of  our  ministers  are  ex- 
clusively devoted  to  promote  their  welfare,  and  most  of 
our  pastors  in  our  Southern  Presbyteries  give  themselves 
habitually  to  the  same  holy  work." — Minutes,  p.  389. 

In  1850,  the  narrative,  though  even  briefer  than 
that  of  the  preceding  year,  mentions,  among  the 
thirty-eight  Presbyteries  which  had  been  specially 
revived,  twenty  of  them  Southern  Presbyteries; 
and   adds: 

"The  spirit  for  doing  good  is  the  general  and  increasing 
spirit  of  the  Church.     It  has  led  to  seek  after  opportuni- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  47 

ties  and  means :  and  to  our  no  small  joy  we  have  to  notice, 
that  our  ministers  and  brethren  manifest  a  readiness  to  en- 
ter upon  any  work  of  Christian  beneficence,  especially  any 
which  aims  at  spiritual  and  eternal  good.  An  example  of 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  attention  given  to  religious  in- 
struction of  the  coloured  people  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
country.  Many  of  our  ministers  there  have  one  service  on 
the  Sabbath  especially  devoted  to  this  object ;  thus  carrying 
into  execution  the  recommendation  of  the  last  General  As- 
sembly."— Minutes^  p.  604. 

In  1851,  the  record  is  the  following,  viz.: 

"The  labours  of  pastors  and  churches  in  behalf  of  the 
coloured  population  within  our  bounds,  and  especially  in  the 
Southern  States,  have  been  prosecuted  with  zeal  and  en- 
ergy. Systematic  efforts  are  made  for  the  instruction  and 
spiritual  improvement  of  the  multitudes  of  the  African 
race  who  have  been  placed  by  Providence  within  our  reach 
and  influence  in  this  country ;  and  these  efforts  have  been 
attended  with  the  happiest  results,  and  with  evident  tokens 
of  the  Divine  blessing.  The  welfare  of  the  children  of  Af- 
rica in  their  native  land  has  also  been  a  subject  of  profound 
interest  to  our  churches.  The  desire  to  give  to  them  the 
gospel,  with  its  attendant  blessings,  is  becoming  more  and 
more  intense,  and  manifests  itself  in  the  high  regard  and 
cordial  sympathy  with  which  the  operations  of  the  Ameri- 
can Colonization  Society  are  regarded  by  the  people  of  God 
in  this  part  of  his  heritage." — Minutes  of  1851,  p.  161. 

In  1852,  the  record  is : 

"  The  Assembly  notice  with  pleasure  the  efforts  made  to 
benefit  the  coloured  population  in  the  Southern  section  of 
the  country.  The  multitudes  of  this  class  of  people,  from 
their  singula?  condition,  as  brought  to  gospel  privileges  by 
a  peculiar  providence,  constitute  at  home  a  mission  field  of 
vast  importance  and  of  most  inviting  character.     With  few 


48  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

exceptions,  ample  provisions  are  made  for  their  religious 
instruction.  To  them  the  gospel  is  preached ;  large  num- 
bers of  them  are  gathered  into  Sabbath-schools,  and  God 
has  signally  owned  and  blessed  the  labours  of  faithful  mis- 
sionaries and  teachers  among  them,  in  bringing  many  of 
them  into  the  household  of  faith. ' ' — 3Imutesof  1852,  p.  358. 

In  1853,  we  have  the  following  explicit  and 
memorable  narrative : 

' '  We  must  not  fail,  in  a  narrative  like  this,  to  call  the 
attention  of  the  churches  to  a  subject  that,  for  many  rea- 
sons not  necessary  to  mention  in  detail,  is  now  occupying 
a  very  deep  interest  in  the  public  mind.  We  refer  to  the 
moral  and  religious  condition  of  our  coloured  population. 
Particular  reference  is  had  to  this  matter  in  many  of  the 
reports,  especially  from  the  Southern  and  South-western 
Presbyteries.  It  is  a  gratifying  fact  that  all  through  that 
section  of  our  country,  means,  more  enlarged,  systematic 
and  efficient,  than  have  ever  been  employed,  are  now  using 
with  the  most  cheering  and  encouraging  success  to  impart 
religious  instruction  to  the  slaves.  Several  of  our  minis- 
ters devote  a  great  portion  of  their  time  and  strength  to 
this  department  of  labour.  And  there  are  not  wanting 
many  remarkable  examples  on  the  part  of  masters  and  mis- 
tresses and  members  in  our  churches,  who  have  given  them- 
selves to  a  zeal  and  devotion  in  this  self-denying  service, 
that  show  most  convincingly  that  it  is  a  work  that  lies  near 
the  hearts  of  our  Southern  brethren,  and  that  they  are  not 
backward  to  undertake.  Pastors  feel  that  the  servant  as 
well  as  the  master  is  a  portion  of  their  charge.  In  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  and  Alabama,  the  most  of  their  hearers  and 
of  their  communicants  in  a  large  number  of  the  churches 
are  slaves.  The  largest  and  most  promising  Sunda.y- 
schools  in  several  of  the  Southern  towns,  are  filled  with 
coloured  children,  together,  in  many  cases,  with  their  par- 
ents, who  are  associated  with  them  in  receiving  the  same 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  49 

religious  instruction.  We  allude  to  these  interesting  facts 
as  going  to  show,  that  both  ministers  and  people  in  the 
South  have  enlisted  in  this  work  of  faith,  and  labour  of 
love,  with  a  most  commendable  and  unprecedented  zeal, 
and  with  a  spirit  worthy  of  imitation  by  all  who  wish  the 
promotion  of  the  real  welfare  of  the  African  race.  Let  us 
rejoice  in  these  things  as  the  harbinger  of  a  better  day 
about  to  dawn  on  this  benighted  and  long-neglected  class 
of  our  fellow-men. " — Minutes^  p.  600. 

The  same  Assembly,  acting  on  a  report  fi'om  the 
Committee  on  the  Board  of  Education,  passed  the 
following  resolution,  viz. : 

'■'  That  the  establishment  of  a  high-school  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  free  coloured  population  of  this  country, 
meets  the  cordial  approbation  and  recommendation  of  this 
Assembly ;  with  the  understanding  that  it  shall  be  wholly 
under  the  supervision  and  control  of  the  Presbytery  or 
Synod  within  whose  bounds  it  may  be  located,  thus  secur- 
ing such  an  education  as  shall  promote  the  usefulness  and 
happiness  of  this  class  of  our  people." — Minutes,  p.  454. 

In  1854,  we  have  the  same  great  history  con- 
tinued, in  the  following  paragraph  from  the  Narra- 
tive, adopted  and  published : 

"  The  reports  sent  to  us  from  the  Presbyteries  covering 
the  portion  of  the  church  in  which  there  is  a  large  slave 
population,  reveal  the  gratifying  fact  that  the  zeal  hitherto 
manifested  on  behalf  of  the  religious  welfare  of  this  class, 
instead  of  abating,  is  evidently  growing  more  ardent  and 
active.  In  their  houses  of  worship,  provision  at  once  spe- 
cial and  liberal  is  made  for  the  accommodation  of  the  col- 
oured people,  so  that  they  may  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the 
sanctuary  in  common  with  the  whites.  Besides  this,  nearly 
all  our  ministers  hold  a  service  in  the  afternoon  of  the  Sab- 
5 


50  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

bath,  in  which  the  exercises  are  particularly  adapted  to 
their  caj^acities  and  wants.  In  some  instances,  ministers 
are  engaged  in  their  exclusive  service — not  ministers  of  in- 
ferior abilities,  but  such  as  would  be  an  ornament  and  a 
blessing  to  the  intelligent,  cultivated  congregations  of  the 
land.  In  a  still  larger  number  of  instances,  the  pastor  of 
a  church  composed  of  the  two  classes,  inasmuch  as  the 
blacks  form  the  more  numerous  portion,  devotes  to  them 
the  greater  share  of  his  labours,  and  finds  among  them  the 
most  pleasing  tokens  of  Grod's  smiles  upon  his  work.  Be- 
sides the  preaching  of  the  word  to  which  they  have  free  ac- 
cess, in  manj''  cases  a  regular  system  of  catechetical  instruc- 
tion, for  their  benefit,  is  pursued,  either  on  the  Sabbath  at 
the  house  of  worship,  or  during  the  week  on  the  planta- 
tions where  they  reside.  Thus  we  give  thanks  unto  God, 
our  common  Father,  that  he  has  inspired  the  hearts  of  our 
brethren,  in  the  parts  of  our  church  referred  to,  with  love 
to  the  souls  of  this  numerous  race,  and  that  he  has  opened 
among  them  a  wide  and  effectual  door  of  usefulness.  At 
the  same  time,  reminding  these  brethren  that  the  work  is 
great,  and  is  yet  far  from  its  full  accomplishment,  we 
would  exhort  and  encourage  them  to  persevere  and  abound 
more  and  more  therein,  assuring  them  of  the  sympathies 
and  prayers  of  the  entire  church  for  them  in  their  self-de- 
nying labours:  The  position  taken  by  our  church  with 
reference  to  the  much  agitated  subject  of  slavery,  secures 
to  us  unlimited  opportunities  of  access  to  master  and  slave, 
and  lays  us  under  heavy  responsibilities  before  God  and  the 
world,  notto  neglect  our  duty  to  either." — Minutes^  p.  183,  4. 

In  1855,  the  record  is  as  follows: 

"The  prosperity  granted  our  church  has  diversified  and 
increased  the  duties  of  our  church.  Extending  from  the 
lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Western  Ocean,  in  a  large  portion  of  our  territory  slavery 


AxMERICAN    SLAVERY.  51 

exists.  -Nor  has  that  people,  whom  the  Presbyterian 
church  found  here  in  a  state  of  bondage,  been  contemned 
for  their  degradation,  nor  neglected  as  to  their  spiritual 
interests.  With  scarcely  an  exception,  the  reports  from 
Presbyteries  of  the  South  speak  in  Christian  tenderness 
of  this  lowly,  but  far  from  undeserving  class  of  our  popu- 
lation, and  of  the  efforts  everywhere  put  forth  to  improve 
their  social  and  spiritual  condition. 

' '  In  few,  if  any  of  our  Southern  States,  are  laws  en- 
forced forbidding  that  slaves  be  taught  to  read.  Usually, 
as  far  as  among  any  other  class.  Sabbath-schools  are  sus- 
tained for  their  instruction.  In  cities  and  larger  towns, 
the  slaves  have,  and  they  prefer  to  have,  their  own 
churches.  In  rural  districts  and  villages,  our  pastors  de- 
vote a  part  of  every  Sabbath  to  their  special  instruction ; 
while,  on  extended  plantations,  every  facility  is  offered  for 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  and  other  methods  of  religious 
teaching.  And  we  believe  ourselves  to  be  speaking  the 
language  of  sober  truth,  when  we  say  there  are  in  our 
Southern  churches  thousands  of  slave  owners,  whose  desire 
and  effort  is  to  prepare  those  whom  an  inscrutable  Provi- 
dence has  cast  upon  their  care,  for  a  state  of  liberty  and 
self-control  they  cannot  yet  enjoy;  and  whose  fervent 
prayer  is,  that  Grod  would  hasten  the  day  of  safe  and  salu- 
tary freedom  to  men  of  every  clime. ' ' — Minutes,  p.  307. 

Besides  this  remarkable  language  for  a  General 
Assembly  sitting  at  Nashville,  Tennessee,  the  same 
body  passed  the  following : 

"  Resolved,  That  this  General  Assembly  has  heard  with 
pleasure  of  the  design  and  practical  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle  to  estabHsh  a  school,  in 
which  coloured  young  men  of  piety  may  receive  a  thorough 
classical  and  theological  education,  fitting  them  for  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  and  for  teaching  among  the  desti- 
tute thousands  of  this  country,  and  the  millions  of  Africa. 


52  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

'■''Resolved^  That  we  regard  this  work  as  an  important 
preliminary  work,  aiming  at  the  liighest  good  of  the  Afri- 
can race  wherever  found ;  and  hereby  express  our  cordial 
approbation  of  it,  and  recommend  our  churches  cheerfully 
and  liberally  to  co-operate  in  this  work  of  fiiith  and  labour 
of  love." — Minutes^  p.  277. 

In  1856,  we  find  in  the  Narrative,  the  following, 
viz.  : 

"  The  Presbyteries  of  Georgia,  West  Hanover,  Harmony, 
Bethel,  Tuscaloosa,  East  Alabama,  South  Alabama,  and 
indeed  nearly  all  the  Presbyteries  of  the  Southern  country, 
report  increased  attention  and  success  in  the  great  work  of 
instructing  and  Christianizing  the  coloured  population,  and 
in  many  instances  most  encouraging  results  are  specified. 
In  some  of  our  churches  the  number  of  coloured  communi- 
cants and  constant  worshippers  exceed  that  of  the  whites  ; 
and  delightful  accounts  are  furnished  of  the  conversion  of 
the  slaves.  Many  planters  have  built  churches  upon  their 
estates,  and  employed  able  and  faithful  ministers  to  labour 
among  the  servants,  and  this  work  is  chiefly  retarded  by  the 
want  of  preachers.  No  church  in  the  land  has  freer  ac- 
cess to  this  very  important  field  of  Christian  enterprise 
than  our  own,  and  it  is  very  desirable  that  more  be  done. " — 
Minutes,  p.  542. 

In  1857,  "EiForts  in  behalf  of  the  people  of 
colour,  in  that  portion  of  the  country  where  they 
live  in  a  subordinate  condition" — and  revivals 
"  among  the  people  of  colour — sixty  in  one  church 
in  the  city  of  Charleston  being  added  on  profes- 
sion— are  embodied  in  the  Narrative,  among  special 
reasons  for  thanks  to  God." — Minuter,  p.  48. 

In   1858,  the  Assembly  informs   the  churches — 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  53 

"  how  the  coloured  people  at  the  South  are  receiving 
eveiywhere  the  fostering  care  of  our  ministers  and 
churches" — how  converts  were  added — "including 
all  ages  and  all  .  classes  of  the  people ;  the  rich,  the 
poor,  the  bond,  the  free,  the  young,  the  old." — Min- 
utes, p.  303. 

In  1859,  the  record  is  in  the  following  words — 
brief,  but  very  significant :  • 

"Again,  the  reports  which  have  come  up  to  us  show  an 
increasing  attention  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  the  coloured 
people.  From  the  narratives  of  the  Southern  Presbj^teries 
it  appears  that  the  gospel  is  specially  preached  to  them  by 
nearly  all  their  pastors.  We  have  before  us  abundant  evi- 
dence that  the  gospel  as  thus  preached  has  not  been  unat- 
tended by  the  blessing  of  God — has  been  in  many  instances 
received  by  them  in  simplicity  of  faith,  and  has  been  made 
to  them  the  power  of  Grod  unto  salvation.  It  is  our  priv- 
ilege to  state  the  interesting  and  cheering  fact,  that  eleven 
Presbyteries  report  revivals  among  the  coloured  people, 
some  of  them  revivals  in  several  churches.  One  church 
has  for  eighteen  months  enjoyed  a  continuous  revival ;  and, 
as  the  fruits  of  that  revival,  as  an  expression  of  their  grat- 
itude to  the  Lord  for  the  great  things  which  he  has  done 
for  them,  they  have  contributed  a  considerable  sum  to  send 
the  gospel  to  their  benighted  brethren  in  Africa." — Min- 
utes^ p.  554. 

The  year  1860  is  the  solitary  year  of  the  sixteen, 
in  which  we  fail  to  find  the  remarkable  record  dis- 
tinctly made. 

But  we  find  it  in  1861 ;  even  after  throes  of  con- 
vulsion had  come  alike  on  church  and  state.  Thus 
we  read  on  the  Minutes,  p.  352 : 


54  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

"  Nor  must  we  omit  to  mention  the  growing  success  re- 
ferred to  by  a  number  of  the  Presbyteries,  in  evangelizing 
the  coloured  people  in  our  Southern  and  South- Western 
States.  These  reports  speak  of  increased  attention  to  this 
class,  and  of  corresponding  results.  Besides  opportunities 
to  hear  the  word  under  its  regular  ministrations  among 
their  white  brethren,  special  missionaries,  in  several  of  our 
Presbyteries,  devote  their  whole  time  to  this  class ;  and  one 
P^^sbytery  takes  notice  of  a  particular  attention  paid  to 
family  instruction  by  means  of  Jones's  Catechism,  among 
the  families  of  the  coloured  people  themselves. ' ' 

Such  is  a  record  of  results  from  the  principles  and 
policy  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  touching  slavery. 
The  paragraphs  here  cited  were  not  from  the  pens 
of  Southern  men,  as  a  general,  or  even  ordinary 
thing.  Of  the  fifteen  statements  we  have  gathered, 
all  of  them  of  course  sanctioned  by  the  Assembly, 
eleven  were  penned  by  Northern  men,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  chairmen  of  the  Committee  on  the  Nar- 
rative. They  are  such  men  as  Drs.  Wm.  D.  Snod- 
grass,  Samuel  McFarren,  Willis  Lord,  I.  S.  Spencer, 
Arthur  Burtis,  John  Goldsmith,  Symmes  C.  Henry, 
S.  M.  Andrews,  D.  X.  Junkin,  Wm.  M.  Scott,  and 
C.  K.  Imbrle.  Drs.  Wm.  L.  Breckinridge,  J.  L. 
Kirkpatrick,  L.  J.  Halsey,  and  P.  J.  Sparrow,  are 
the  others. 

IX.  The  loyalty  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
her  attitude  towards  the  rebellion  of  the  South. 

In  1861,  the  Presbyteries  of  the  South  mostly 
failed  to  be  represented  at  the  General  Assembly. 
Many  members,  of  unquestionable  and  even  ardent 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  55 

loyalty  to  the  Federal  Government,  thought  it  un- 
wise, at  that  time,  to  take  any  action  on  the  state  of 
the  comitry.  Hence,  when  a  resolution  was  at  first 
offered  by  Dr.  Spring,  of  Xew  York,'"  that  a  spe- 
cial committee  should  be  appointed  to  inquire  into 
the  expediency  of  the  Assembly  making  some  ex- 
pression of  their  devotion  to  the  Union  of  these 
States,  and  their  loyalty  to  the  Government,"  it  was 
laid  on  the  table,  by  a  vote  of  123  to  102.  Soon 
afterwards  it  was  taken  up  again,  and  made  an  or- 
der of  the  day  for  a  particular  time ;  when,  after  an 
animated  discussion,  it  was  referred  to  a  special  com- 
mittee of  nine.  Dr.  Musgrave  brought  in  a  report 
fi'om  the  majority,  and  Dr.  W.  C.  Anderson  a  re- 
port from  the  minority  of  the  committee.  This  mi- 
nority report,  after  amendment,  on  motion  of  Dr. 
Edwards,  was  adopted,  by  a  vote  of  156  to  6Q  ;  and 
is  as  follows : 

"  Grratefully  acknowledging  the  distinguished  bounty  and 
care  of  Almighty  God  toward  this  favoured  land,  and  also 
recognizing  our  obligations  to  submit  to  every  ordinance  of 
man  for  the  Lord's  sake,  this  General  Assembly  adopt  the 
following  resolutions : 

"  Resolved,  1.  That  in  view  of  the  present  agitated  and 
unhappy  condition  of  this  country,  the  first  day  of  July 
next  be  hereby  set  apart  as  a  day  of  prayer  throughout  our 
bounds;  and  that  on  this  day  ministers  and  people  are 
called  on  humbly  to  confess  and  bewail  our  national  sins  ; 
to  offer  our  thanks  to  the  Father  of  light  for  his  abundant 
and  undeserved  goodness  towards  us  as  a  nation ;  to  seek 
his  guidance  and  blessing  upon  our  rulers,  and  their  coun- 
sels, as  well  as  on  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  about 


56  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

to  assemble;  and  to  implore  him,  in  the  name  of  Jestis 
Christ,  the  great  High  Priest  of  the  Christian  profession, 
to  turn  awaj^  his  anger  from  us,  and  speedily  restore  to  us 
the  blessings  of  an  honourable  peace. 

"  Resolved,  2.  That  this  General  Assemblj'',  in  the  spirit 
of  that  Christian  patriotism  which  the  Scriptures  enjoin, 
and  which  has  always  characterized  this  church,  do  hereby 
acknowledge  and  declare  our  obligations  to  promote  and 
perpetuate,  so  far  as  in  us  lies,  the  integrity  of  these 
United  States,  and  to  strengthen,  uphold,  and  encourage, 
the  Federal  Government  in  the  exercise  of  all  its  functions 
under  our  noble  Constitution :  and  to  this  Constitution  in 
all  its  provisions,  requirements,  and  principles,  we  profess 
our  unabated  loyalty. 

"And  to  avoid  all  misconception,  the  Assembly  declare 
that  by  the  terms  'Federal  Government,'  as  here  used,  is 
not  meant  any  particular  administration,  or  the  peculiar 
opinions  of  any  particular  party,  but  that  central  adminis- 
tration, which  being  at  any  time  appointed  and  inagurated 
according  to  the  forms  prescribed  in  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  is  the  visible  representative  of  our  na- 
tional existence. ' ' 

In  1862,  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  J.  Breckinridge  offered 
a  paper  in  the  General  Assembly,  which  was  thor- 
oughly discussed,  and  adopted  by  a  vote  of  206  to 
20.     It  is  as  follows : 

"  The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
the  United  States  of  America,  now  in  session  at  Columbus, 
in  the  State  of  Ohio : 

"  Considering  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  country  in 
the  midst  of  a  bloody  civil  war,  and  of  the  church  agitated 
everywhere,  divided  in  sentiment  in  many  places,  and 
openly  assailed  by  schism  in  a  large  section  of  it ;  consider- 
ing, also,  the  duty  which  this  chief  tribunal,  met  in  the 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  57 

name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  glorified  Saviour  of  sin- 
ners, who  is  also  the  Sovereign  Ruler  of  all  things,  ^es  to 
him,  our  Head  and  Lord,  and  to  his  flock  committed  to  our 
charge,  and  to  the  people  whom  we  are  commissioned  to 
evangelize,  and  to  the  civil  authorities  who  exist  by  his  ap- 
pointment ;  do  hereby,  in  this  deliverance,  give  utterance 
to  our  solemn  convictions  and  our  deliberate  judgment, 
touching  the  matters  herein  set  forth,  that  they  may  serve 
for  the  guidance  of  all  over  whom  the  Lord  Christ  has 
given  us  any  office  of  instruction,  or  any  power  of  govern- 
ment. 

' '  I.  Peace  is  amongst  the  very  highest  temporal  blessings 
of  the  church,  as  well  as  of  all  mankind ;  and  public  order 
is  one  of  the  first  necessities  of  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the 
civil  commonwealth.  Peace  has  been  wickedly  superseded 
by  war,  in  its  worst  form,  throughout  the  whole  land  ;  and 
public  order  has  been  wickedly  superseded  by  rebellion, 
anarchy,  and  violence,  in  the  whole  Southern  portion  of 
the  Union.  All  this  has  been  brought  to  pass  in  a  disloyal 
and  traitorous  attempt  to  overthrow  the  National  Govern- 
ment by  military  force,  and  to  divide  the  nation  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  the  immense  majority  of  the  people  of  the 
nation,  and  without  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  majority 
of  the  people  in  whom  the  local  sovereignty  resided,  even 
in  the  States  which  revolted,  ever  authorized  any  such  pro- 
ceeding, or  ever  approved  the  fraud  and  violence  by  which 
this  horrible  treason  has  achieved  whatever  success  it  has 
had.  This  whole  treason,  rebellion,  anarchy,  fraud,  and 
violence,  is  utterly  contrary  to  the  dictates  of  natural  reli- 
gion and  morality,  and  is  plainly  condemned  by  the  re- 
vealed will  of  God.  It  is  the  clear  and  solemn  duty  of  the 
National  Government  to  preserve,  at  whatever  cost,  the 
national  Union  and  Constitution,  to  maintain  the  laws  in 
their  supremacy,  to  crush  force  by  force,  and  to  restore  the 
reign  of  public  order  and  peace  to  the  entire  nation,  by 
whatever  lawful  means  that  are  necessary  thereunto.     And 


58  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  the  people  who  compose  this 
great  nation,  each  one  in  his  several  place  and  degree,  to 
uphold  the  Federal  Government,  and  every  State  Govern- 
ment, and  all  persons  in  authority,  whether  civil  or  mili- 
tary, in  all  their  lawful  and  proper  acts,  unto  the  end  herein 
before  set  forth. 

' '  II.  The  church  of  Christ  has  no  authority  from  him 
to  make  rebellion,  or  to  counsel  treason,  or  to  favour  an- 
archy in  any  case  whatever.  On  the  contrary,  every  fol- 
lower of  Christ  has  the  personal  liberty  bestowed  on  him 
by  Christ,  to  submit,  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  according  to 
his  own  conscientious  sense  of  duty,  to  whatever  govern- 
ment, however  bad,  under  which  his  lot  may  be  cast.  But 
while  patient  suffering  for  Christ's  sake  can  never  be  sin- 
ful, treason,  rebellion,  and  anarchy  may  be  sinful — most 
generally,  perhaps,  are  sinful ;  and,  probably,  are  always 
and  necessarily  sinful,  in  all  free  countries,  where  the 
power  to  change  the  government  by  voting,  in  the  place  of 
force,  which  exists  as  a  common  right,  constitutionally  se- 
cured to  the  people,  who  are  sovereign.  If,  in  any  case, 
treason,  rebellion,  and  anarchy  can  possibly  be  sinful,  they 
are  so  in  the  case  now  desolating  large  portions  of  'this  na- 
tion, and  lajdng  waste  great  numbers  of  Christian  congre- 
gations, and  fatally  obstructing  every  good  word  and  work 
in  those  regions.  To  the  Christian  people  scattered 
throughout  those  unfortunate  regions,  and  who  have  been 
left  of  God  to  have  any  hand  in  bringing  on  these  terrible 
calamities,  we  earnestly  address  words  of  exhortation  and 
rebuke,  as  unto  brethren  who  have  sinned  exceedingly,  and 
whom  God  calls  to  repentance,  by  fearful  judgments.  To 
those  in  like  circumstances  who  are  not  chargeable  with 
the  sins  which  have  brought  such  calamities  upon  the  land, 
but  who  have  chosen,  in  the  exercise  of  their  Christian  lib- 
erty, to  stand  in  their  lot  and  suffer,  we  address  words  of 
affectionate  sympathy,  praying  God  to  bring  them  off  con- 
querors.    To  those  in  like  circumstances,  who  have  taken 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  .59 

tlieir  lives  in  their  hands,  and  risked  all  for  their  country 
and  for  conscience'  sake,  we  say,  we  love  such  with  all  our 
heart,  and  bless  Grod  such  witnesses  were  found  in  the  time 
of  thick  darkness.  We  fear,  and  we  record  it  with  great 
grief,  that  the  church  of  God,  and  the  Christian  people, 
to  a  great  extent,  and  throughout  all  the  revolted  States, 
have  done  many  things  that  ought  not  to  have  been  done, 
and  have  left  undone  much  that  ought  to  have  been  done, 
in  this  time  of  trial,  rebuke,  and  blasphemy  ;  but  concern- 
ing the  wide  schism  which  is  reported  to  have  occurred  in 
many  Southern  Synods,  this  "Assembly  will  take  no  action 
at  this  time.  It  declares,  however,  its  fixed  purpose,  un- 
der all  possible  circumstances,  to  labour  for  the  extension 
and  the  permanent  maintenance  of  the  church  under  its 
care,  in  every  part  of  the  United  States.  Schism,  so  far 
as  it  may  exist,  we  hope  to  see  healed.  If  that  cannot  be, 
it  will  be  disregarded. 

' '  III.  We  record  our  gratitude  to  Grod  for  the  prevailing 
unity  of  sentiment  and  general  internal  peace,  which  have 
characterized  the  church  in  the  States  that  have  not  re- 
volted, embracing  a  great  majority  of  the  ministers,  con- 
gregations, and  people  under  our  care.  It  may  still  be 
called,  with  emphasis,  a  loyal,  orthodox,  and  pious  church; 
and  all  its  acts  and  works  indicate  its  right  to  a  title  so  no- 
ble. Let  it  strive  for  divine  grace  to  maintain  that  good 
report.  In  some  respects,  the  interests  of  the  church  of 
God  are  very  different  from  those  of  all  civil  institutions. 
Whatever  may  befall  this,  or  any  other  nation,  the  church 
of  Christ  must  abide  on  earth,  triumphant  even  over  the 
gates  of  hell.  It  is,  therefore,  of  supreme  importance  that 
the  church  should  guard  itself  from  internal  alienations 
and  divisions,  founded  upon  questions  and  interests  that 
are  external  as  to  her,  and  which  ought  not  by  their  ne- 
cessary workings  to  cause  her  fate  to  depend  on  the  fate  of 
things  less  important  and  less  enduring  than  herself.  Dis- 
turbers of  the  church  ought  not  to  be  allowed :  especially 


60  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

disturbers  of  the  cliurcli  in  States  that  never  revolted,  or 
that  have  been  cleared  of  armed  rebels :  disturbers  who, 
under  many  false  pretexts,  may  promote  discontent,  dis- 
loyalty, and  general  aUenation,  tending  to  the  unsettling 
of  ministers,  to  local  schisms,  and  to  manifold  trouble. 
Let  a  spirit  of  quietness,  of  mutual  forbearance,  and  of 
ready  obedience  to  authority,  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical, 
illustrate  the  loyalty,  the  orthodoxy,  and  the  piety  of  the 
church.  It  is  more  especially  to  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
and  amongst  them,  particularly  to  any  whose  first  impres- 
sions had  been,  on  any  account,  favourable  to  the  terrible 
military  revolution  which  has  been  attempted,  and  which 
Grod's  providence  has  hitherto  so  singularly  rebuked ;  that 
these  decisive  considerations  ought  to  be  addressed.  And 
in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Jesus  we 
earnestly  exhort  all  who  love  Grod  or  fear  his  wrath,  to 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  all  counsels  and  suggestions  that  tend 
towards  a  reaction  favourable  to  disloyalty,  schism,  or  dis- 
turbance either  in  the  church  or  in  the  country.  There  is 
hardly  anything  more  inexcusable  connected  with  the 
frightful  conspiracy  against  which  we  testify,  than  the  con- 
duct of  those  office-bearers  and  members  of  the  church 
who,  although  citizens  of  loyal  States,  and  subject  to  the 
control  of  loj^al  Presbyteries  and  Synods,  have  been  faith- 
less to  all  authority,  human  and  divine,  to  which  they  owed 
subjection.  Nor  should  any  to  whom  this  Deliverance  may 
come  fail  to  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  not  only  their  outward 
conduct  concerning  which  they  ought  to  take  heed  ;  but  it 
is  also,  and  especially  their  heart,  their  temper,  and  their 
motives,  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  towards  the  free  and  be- 
neficent civil  government  which  he  has  blessed  us  withal, 
and  toward  the  spiritual  commonwealth  to  which  they  are 
subject  in  the  Lord,  In  all  these  respects,  we  must  all 
give  account  to  God  in  the  great  day.  And  it  is  in  view 
of  our  own  dread  responsibility  to  the^Judge  of  quick  and 
dead  that  we  now  make  this  Deliverance." — Mimites,  p. 
624. 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  61 

In  1863,  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly,  Mr. 
T.  H.  Nevin,  moved,  that  a  committee  be  appointed 
to  raise  the  national  flag  over  the  church  in  which 
the  Assembly  were  sitting,  at  Peoria,  111.  After  a 
motion  to  lay  on  the  table  was  lost,  by  a  vote  of  93 
to  130,  a  committee  of  seven  was  appointed,  on  mo- 
tion of  Dr.  J.  M.  Lowrie,  to  consider  the  whole  sub- 
ject. Two  reports  were  brought  in — one  by  Dr. 
LowTie  for  the  majorit^^,  and  one  by  Dr.  Humphrey 
for  the  minority,  both  of  which  were  adopted ;  the 
former,  by  a  vote  of  180  to  20 :  and  the  latter,  by  a 
vote  of  206  to  2. 

Dr.  Lowrie's  paper  is  as  follows : 

"The  Committee  to  whom  was  referred  the  resolution 
which  proposed  to  raise  the  flag  of  the  United  States  upon 
the  building  in  which  the  Assembly  is  now  convened,  and 
to  report  in  respect  to  the  '  State  of  the  Country, '  respect- 
fully present  the  following  report : 

"  Your  Committee  beheve  that  the  design  of  the  mover 
of  the  original  resolution,  and  of  the  large  majority,  who 
apparently  are  ready  to  vote  for  its  adoption,  is  simply  to 
call  forth  from  the  Assembly  a  significant  token  of  our  sym- 
pathy with  this  government,  in  its  earnest  efforts  to  sup- 
press a  rebellion,  that  now  for  over  two  years  has  wickedly 
stood  in  armed  resistance  to  lawful  and  beneficent  authority. 
But  as  there  are  many  among  us  who  are  undoubtedly  pa- 
triotic ;  who  are  willing  to  express  any  righteous  principle 
to  which  this  Assembly  should  give  utterance,  touching 
the  subjection  and  attachment  of  an  American  citizen  to  the 
Union  and  its  institutions ;  who  love  the  flag  of  our  coun- 
try, and  rejoice  in  its  successes  by  sea  and  by  land ;  and 
who  yet  do  not  esteem  this  particular  act  a  testimonial  of 
loyalty  entirely  becoming  to  a  church  court, — and  as  many 


62  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

of  these  brethren,  by  the  pressing  of  this  vote,  would  be 
placed  in  a  false  position,  as  if  they  dijd  not  love  the  Union, 
of  which  that  flag  is  the  beloved  symbol,  your  Committee 
deem  themselves  authorized,  by  the  subsequent  direction 
of  the  Assembly,  to  propose  a  different  action  to  be 
adopted  by  this  venerable  court. 

"It  is  well  known,  on  the  one  hand,  that  the  General 
Assembly  has  ever  been  reluctant  to  repeat  its  testimonies 
upon  important  matters  of  public  interest;  but,  having 
given  utterance  to  carefully  considered  words,  is  content  to 
abide  calmly  by  its  recorded  deliverances.  Nothing  that 
this  Assembly  can  say  can  more  fully  express  the  wicked- 
ness of  the  rebellion  that  has  cost  so  much  blood  and 
treasure ;  can  declare  in  plainer  terms  the  guilt  before  God 
and  man,  of  those  who  have  inaugurated,  or  maintained, 
or  countenanced,  for  so  little  cause,  this  fratricidal  strife ; 
or  can  more  impressively  urge  the  solemn  duty  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  lawful  exercise  of  its  authority,  and  of  the 
people,  each  in  his  several  place,  to  uphold  the  civil  au- 
thorities, to  the  end  that  law  and  order  may  again  reign 
throughout  this  entire  nation — than  these  things  have  al- 
ready been  done  by  previous  Assemblies.  Nor  need  this 
body  declare  its  solemn  rebukes  towards  those  ministers 
and  members  of  the  church  of  Christ,  who  have  aided  in 
bringing  on  and  sustaining  these  immense  calamities ;  or 
tender  our  kind  sympathies  to  those  who  are  overtaken  by 
troubles  they  could  not  avoid,  and  who  mourn  and  weep  in 
secret  places,  not  unseen  by  the  Father's  eye  ;  or  reprove 
all  wilful  disturbers  of  the  public  peace ;  or  exhort  those 
that  are  subject  to  our  care,  to  the  careful  discharge  of 
every  duty  tending  to  uphold  the  free  and  beneficent  gov- 
ernment under  which  we  are,  and  this  specially  for  con- 
science' sake,  and  as  in  the  sight  of  God — more  than  in 
regard  to  all  these  things,  the  General  Assembly  has  made 
its  solemn  deliverances,  since  these  troubles  began. 

"  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  well  for  this  Gene- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  63 

ral  Assembly  to  reaffirm,  as  it  now  solemnly  does,  the 
great  principles  to  which  utterance  has  already  been  given. 
We  do  this  the  more  readily,  because  our  beloved  church 
may  thus  be  understood  to  take  her  deliberate  and  well- 
chosen  stand,  free  from  all  imputations  of  haste  or  excite- 
ment ;  because  we  recognise  an  entire  harmony  between 
the  duties  of  the  citizen,  (especially  in  a  land  where  the 
people  frame  their  own  laws,  and  choose  their  own  rulers, ) 
and  the  duties  of  the  Christian  to  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church ;  because,  indeed,  least  of  all  persons  should  Chris- 
tian citizens  even  seem  to  stand  back  from  their  duty, 
when  bad  men  press  forward  for  mischief;  and  because  a 
true  love  for  our  country,  in  her  times  of  peril,  should  for- 
bid us  to  withhold  an  expression  of  our  attachment,  for 
the  insufficient  reason  that  we  are  not  accustomed  to  re- 
peat our  utterances. 

"And  because  there  are  those  among  us  who  have 
scruples  touching  the  propriety  of  any  deliverance  of  a 
church  court  respecting  civil  matters,  this  Assembly  would 
add,  that  all  strifes  of  party  politics  should  indeed  be  ban- 
ished from  our  ecclesiastical  assemblies,  and  from  our  pul- 
pits ;  that  Christian  people  should  earnestly  guard  against 
promoting  partizan  divisions ;  and  that  the  difficulty  of  ac- 
curately deciding,  in  some  cases,  what  are  general  and 
what  party  principles,  should  make  us  careful  in  our  judg- 
ments ;  but  that  our  duty  is  none  the  less  imperative  to 
uphold  the  constituted  authorities,  because  minor  delicate 
questions  may  possibly  be  involved.  Rather,  the  sphere 
of  the  church  is  wider  and  more  searching,  touching  mat- 
ters of  great  public  interest,  than  the  sphere  of  the  civil 
magistrate,  in  this  important  respect — that  the  civil  author- 
ities can  take  cognizance  only  of  overt  acts ;  while  the  law 
of  which  the  church  of  Grod  is  the  interpreter,  searches 
the  heart,  makes  every  man  subject  to  the  civil  authority 
for  conscience'  sake,  and  declares  that  man  truly  guilty, 
who  allows  himself'  to  be  alienated,  in  sympathy  and  feel- 


64  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

ing,  from  any  lawful  duty,  or  who  does  not  conscientiously 
prefer  the  welfare,  and  especially  the  preservation  of  the 
government,  to  any  party  or  partizan  ends.  Officers  may 
not  always  command  a  citizen's  confidence  ;  measures  may 
by  him  be  deemed  unwise ;  earnest,  lawful  efforts  may  be 
made  for  changes  he  may  think  desirable ;  but  no  causes 
now  exist  to  vindicate  the  disloyalty  of  American  citizens 
towards  the  United  States  government. 

"The  General  Assembly  would  not  withhold  from  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  that  expression  of  cor- 
dial sympathy  which  a  loyal  people  should  offer.  We  be- 
lieve that  God  has  afforded  us  ample  resources  to  suppress 
this  rebellion,  and  that,  with  his  blessing,  it  will  ere  long, 
be  accomplished.  We  would  animate  those  who  are  dis- 
couraged by  the  continuance  and  fluctuations  of  these 
costly  strifes,  to  remember  and  rejoice  in  the  supreme 
government  of  our  God,  who  often  leads  through  perplex- 
ity and  darkness.  We  would  exhort  to*  penitence  for  all 
our  national  sins,  to  sobriety  and  humbleness  of  mind  be- 
fore the  Great  Euler  of  all,  and  to  constant  prayerfulness 
for  the  Divine  blessing ;  and  we  would  entreat  our  people 
to  beware  of  all  schemes  implying  resistance  to  the  lawfully 
constituted  authorities,  by  any  other  means  than  are  recog- 
nised as  lawful  to  be  openly  prosecuted.  And  as  this  As- 
sembly is  ready  to  declare  our  unalterable  attachment  and 
adherence  to  the  Union  established  by  our  fathers,  and 
our  unqualified  condemnation  of  the  rebellion ;  to  proclaim 
to  the  world  the  United  States,  one  and  undivided,  as  our 
country ;  the  lawfully  chosen  rulers  of  the  land,  our  rulers ; 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  our  civil  govern- 
ment ;  and  its  honoured  flag,  our  flag ;  and  to  affirm  that 
we  are  bound,  in  the  truest  and  strictest  fidelity,  to  the 
duties  of  Christian  citizens  under  a  government  that  has 
strown  its  blessings  with  a  profuse  hand,  your  Committee 
recommend  that,  as  the  trustees  of  this  church,  concurring 
in  the  desire  of  many  members  of  this  Assembly,  have  dis- 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  65 

played  from  this  edifice  the  American  flag,  the  symbol  of 
national  protection,  unity,  and  liberty,  the  particular  ac- 
tion contemplated  in  the  original  resolution  be  no  further 
urged  upon  the  attention  of  this  body. ' ' 

"The  paper  of  Dr.  Humphrey  is  as  follows  : 

"The  G-eneral  Assembly  of  1861  adopted  a  minute  on  the 
state  of  the  church  and  the  country.  The  Assembly  of 
1862  uttered  a  more  formal  and  comprehensive  dehverance. 
In  the  meantime,  a  certain  number,  perhaps  the  larger 
portion  of  the  Presbyteries  and  Synods,  have  expressed 
their  judgments  on  the  same  subject.  This  G-eneral  As- 
sembly is  persuaded  that  the  office-bearers  and  members 
of  this  church,  within  the  Presbyteries  represented  here, 
are,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  united  in  a  strict  and  true  al- 
legiance to  the  Constitution  and  Grovernment  of  the  United 
States;  and  that  they  are,  as  a  body,  loyal  both  to  the 
church  and  the  civu  government  as  ordinances  of  Grod. 

"This  General  Assembly  contents  itself,  on  that  part  of 
the  subject,  by  enjoining  upon  all  the  people  of  God,  who 
acknowledge  this  church  as  their  church,  to  uphold,  accord- 
ing as  God  shall  give  them  strength,  the  authority  of  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land,  in  this  time  of  supreme 
national  peril.  But  this  Assembly  would  most  distinctly 
and  solemnly  inculcate  upon  all  its  people  the  duty  of  hum- 
bly confessing  before  God  the  great  unworthiness,  and  the 
manj"  sins  of  the  people  of  this  land,  and  of  acknowledging 
the  holiness  and  justice  of  the  Almighty  in  the  present  vis- 
itation. He  is  righteous  in  all  his  ways,  and  holy  in  all  his 
works.  We  exhort  our  brethren  to  seek  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  by  praj^er  and  confession  and  repentance,  so 
that  the  anger  of  the  Lord  may  be  turned  away  from  us, 
and  that  the  spirit  of  piety  may  become  not  less  predomi- 
nant and  vital  in  the  churches  than  the  spirit  of  an  awak- 
ened patriotism. 

"And  this  Assembly,  connecting  the  experience  of  our 
present  trials  with  the  remembrance  of  those  through  which 
6  * 


66  AMERICAN   SLAVERY. 

the  church  has  passed,  does  now  recall  and  adopt  the  sen- 
timents of  our  fathers  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  as  these 
are  expressed  for  substance  in  the  Solemn  League  and 
Covenant  of  1643.  'And  because  the  people  of  this  land 
are  guilty  of  many  sins  and  provocations  against  God,  and 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  as  is  manifest  by  our  present  dis- 
tresses and  dangers,  the  fruits  thereof,  we  profess  and  de- 
clare before  Grod  and  the  world  our  unfeigned  desire  to  be 
humbled  for  our  own  sins  and  the  sins  of  the  people,  espe- 
cially that  we  have  not,  as  we  ought,  valued  the  inestima- 
ble benefit  of  the  gospel,  nor  laboured  for  the  purity  and 
power  thereof;  and  that  we  have  not,  as  we  ought,  en- 
deavoured to  receive  Christ  in  our  hearts,  nor  to  walk 
worthy  of  him  in  our  lives,  which  are  the  cause  of  other 
sins  and  transgressions  so  much  abounding  among  us ;  and 
our  true  and  unfeigned  purpose,  desire,^  and  endeavour  for 
ourselves,  and  all  others  under  our  charge,  both  in  public 
and  private,  in  all  duties  we  owe  to  God  and  man,  to 
amend  our  lives,  and  each  one  to  go  before  another  in  the 
example  of  a  real  reformation,  that  the  Lord  may  turn 
away  his  wrath  and  heavy  indignation,  and  establish  the 
church  and  the  land  in  truth  and  peace.' — Minutes,  p. 
56-60. 

X.  Slavery  as  now  viewed  by  the  Presbyterian 
Clmrch, 

In  the  General  Assembly  of  1864,  Hon.  Stanley 
Matthews,  from  the  Committee  of  Bills  and  Over- 
tures, reported  a  paper,  which,  after  various  amend- 
ments, was  adopted  "  with  almost  entire  unanimity," 
and  is  as  follows  : 

"  Overture  No.  12,  from  the  Presbytery  of  Newton,  re- 
citing the  former  deliverances  of  the  General  Assembly 
upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  this  country,  and  the  duty 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  67 

of  emancipation,  and  asking  this  Greneral  Assembly  to  take 
such  action  as  in  their  wisdom  seems  proper  to  meet  the 
present  aspects  of  human  bondage  in  our  country,  and  rec- 
ommend the  adoption  of  the  following : 

"In  the  opinion  of  the  G-eneral  Assembly,  the  solemn 
and  momentous  circumstances  of  our  times,  the  state  of 
our  country,  and  the  condition  of  our  church,  demand  a 
plain  declaration  of  its  sentiments  upon  the  question  of 
slavery,  in  view  of  its  present  aspects  in  this  country. 

"From  the  earliest  period  of  our  church,  the  General 
Assembly  delivered  unequivocal  testimonies  upon  this  sub- 
ject, which  it  will  be  profitable  now  to  reaffirm. 

"  In  the  year  1787,  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia, in  view  of  movements  then  on  foot  looking  to  the 
aboUtion  of  slavery,  and  highly  approving  of  them,  declared 
that  '  inasmuch  as  men  introduced  from  a  servile  state  to 
a  participation  of  all  the  privileges  of  civil  society,  without 
a  proper  education,  and  without  previous  habits  of  in- 
dustry, may  be,  in  many  respects,  dangerous  to  the  com- 
munity, therefore  they  earnestly  recommend  to  all  the 
members  belonging  to  their  communion  to  give  these  per- 
sons who  are  at  present  held  in  servitude,  such  good  edu- 
cation as  to  prepare  them  for  the  better  enjoyment  of  free- 
dom.' *  *  *  'And  finally  they  recommend 
it  to  all  their  people  to  use  the  most  prudent  measures 
consistent  with  the  interest  and  the  state  of  civil  society  in 
the  countries  where  they  live,  to  procure  eventually  the 
final  aboHtion  of  slavery  in  America. ' 

"In  1795,  the  General  Assembly  'assured  all  the 
churches  under  their  care  that  they  view  with  the  deepest 
concern  any  vestiges  of  slavery  which  may  exist  in  our 
country. ' 

"  In  1815  the  following  record  was  made  :  '  The  General 
Assembly  have  repeatedly  declared  their  cordial  approba- 
tion of  those  principles  of  civil  liberty  which  appear  to  be 
recognised  by  the  Federal  and  State  governments  in  these 


68  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

United  States.  They  have  expressed  their  regret  that  the 
slavery  of  the  Africans  and  of  their  descendants  still  con- 
tinues in  so  many  places,  and  even  among  those  within  the 
pale  of  the  church,  and  have  urged  the  Presbyteries  under 
their  care  to  adopt  such  measures  as  will  secure,  at  least 
to  the  rising  generation  of  slaves,  within  the  bounds  of  the 
church,  a  religious  education,  that  they  may  be  prepared 
for  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  liberty,  when  God  in  his 
providence  may  open  a  door  for  their  emancipation. ' 

' '  The  action  of  the  G-eneral  Assembly  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery  in  the  year  1818  is  unequivocal,  and  so  well  known, 
that  it  need  not  be  recited  at  length.  The  following  ex- 
tracts, however,  we  regard  as  applicable  to  our  present 
circumstances,  and  proper  now  to  be  reiterated : 

"  'We  consider  the  voluntary  enslaving  of  one  portion  of 
the  human  race  by  another  as  a  gross  violation  of  the  most 
precious  and  sacred  rights  of  human  nature,  as  utterly  in- 
consistent with  the  law  of  God,  which  requires  us  to  love 
our  neighbour  as  ourselves,  and  as  totally  irreconcilable 
with  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the  gospel  of  Christ, 
which  'enjoins  that  all  things  whatsoever  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them. '  Slavery 
creates  a  paradox  in  the  moral  system.  It  exhibits  ra- 
tional, moral,  and  accountable  beings  in  such  circum- 
stances as  scarcely  to  leave  them  the  power  of  moral  ac- 
tion. It  exhibits  them  as  dependent  on  the  will  of  others, 
whether  they  shall  receive  religious  instruction,  whether 
they  shall  know  and  worship  the  true  God,  whether  they 
shall  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  the  gospel,  whether  they 
shall  perform  the  duties  and  cherish  the  endearments  of 
husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  neighbours  and 
friends ;  whether  they  shall  preserve  their  chastity  and  pu- 
rity, or  regard  the  dictates  of  justice  and  humanity.  Such 
are  some  of  the  consequences  of  slavery — consequences  not 
imaginary,  but  which  connect  themselves  with  its  very  ex- 
istence. ***** 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  69 

"  'From  this  view  of  the  consequences  resulting  from  the 
practice,  into  which  Christian  people  have  most  inconsist- 
entl}^  fallen,  of  enslaving  a  portion  of  their  brethren  of 
mankind,  .  .  .  it  is  manifestly  the  duty  of  all  Chris- 
tians, who  enjoy  the  light  of  the  present  day,  when  the  in- 
consistency of  slavery,  both  with  the  dictates  of  humanity 
and  of  religion,  has  been  demonstrated,  and  is  generally 
seen  and  acknowledged,  to  use  their  honest,  earnest,  and 
unwearied  endeavours  to  correct  the  errors  of  former  times, 
and  as  speedily  as  possible  to  efface  this  blot  on  otir  holy 
religion,  and  to  obtain  the  complete  abolition  of  slavery 
throughout  Christendom,  and  if  possible  throughout  the 
world. ' 

"They  earnestly  exhorted  those  portions  of  the  church 
where  the  evil  of  slavery  had  been  entailed  upon  them, 
'  to  continue,  and,  if  possible,  to  increase  their  exertions, 
to  effect  a  total  abolition  of  slavery,  and  to  suffer  no  greater 
delay  to  take  place  in  this  most  interesting  concern  than  a 
regard  to  public  welfare  truly  and  indispensably  demands;' 
and  declare  '  that  our  country  ought  to  be  governed  in 
this  matter  by  no  other  consideration  than  an  honest  and 
impartial  regard  to  the  happiness  of  the  injured  party,  un- 
influenced by  the  expense  or  inconvenience  which  such  a 
regard  may  involve  ; '  warning  '  all  who  belong  to  our  de- 
nomination of  Christians  against  unduly  extending  this 
plea  of  necessity ;  against  making  it  a  cover  for  the  love 
and  practice  of  slavery,  or  a  pretence  for  not  using  efforts 
that  are  lawful  and  practicable  to  extinguish  this  evil. ' 

"  Such  were  the  early  and  unequivocal  instructions  of  our 
church.  It  is  not  necessary  too  minutely  to  inquire  how 
faithful  and  obedient  to  these  lessons  and  warnings  those 
to  whom  they  were  addressed  have  been.  It  ought  to  be 
acknowledged  that  we  have  all  much  to  confess  and  lament 
as  to  our  short-comings  in  this  respect.  Whether  a  strict 
and  careful  application  of  this  advice  would  have  rescued 
the  country  from  the  evil  of  its  condition,  and  the  dangers 


70  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

which  have  since  threatened  it,  is  known  to  the  Omniscient 
alone.  Whilst  we  do  not  believe  that  the  present  judg- 
ments of  our  Heavenly  Father,  and  Almighty  and  Right- 
eous Governor,  have  been  inflicted  solely  in  punishment  for 
our  continuance  in  this  sin;  yet  it  is  our  judgment  that  the 
recent  events  of  our  history,  and  the  present  condition  of  our 
church  and  country,  furnish  manifest  tokens  that  the  time 
has  at  length  coine,  in  the  providence  of  God^  lohen  it  is  his 
will  that  every  vestige  of  human  slavery  among  us  shoidd  he 
effaced,  and  that  every  Christian  man  shoidd  address  him- 
self tenth  industry  and  earnestness  to  his  appropriate  pa/rt  in 
the  performance  of  this  great  duty. 

"Whatever  excuses  for  its  postponement  may  heretofore 
have  existed,  no  longer  avail.  When  the  country  was  at 
peace  within  itself,  and  the  church  was  unbroken,  many 
consciences  were  perplexed  in  the  presence  of  this  great 
evil,  for  the  want  of  an  adequate  remedy.  Slavery  was  so 
formidably  intrenched  behind  the  ramparts  of  personal  in- 
terests and  prejudices,  that  to  attack  it  with  a  view  to  its 
speedy  overthrow  appeared  to  be  attacking  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  social  order  itself,  and  was  characterized  as  the 
inevitable  introduction  of  an  anarchy  worse  in  its  conse- 
quences than  the  evil  for  which  it  seemed  to  be  the  only 
cure.  But  the  folly  and  weakness  of  men  have  been  the 
illustrations  of  God's  wisdom  and  power.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  most  incomprehensible  infatuation  of  wick- 
edness, those  who  were  most  deeply  interested  in  the  per- 
petuation of  slavery  have  taken  away  every  motive  for  its 
further  toleration.  The  spirit  of  American  slavery,  not 
content  with  its  defences  to  be  found  in  the  laws  of  the 
States,  the  provisions  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  the 
prejudices  in  favour  of  existing  institutions,  and  the  fear 
of  change,  has  taken  arms  against  law,  organized  a  bloody 
rebellion  against  the  national  authority,  made  formidable 
war  upon  the  Federal  Union,  and  in  order  to  found  an 
empire  upon  the  corner-stone  of  slavery,  threatens  not 


AMERICAN    SLAVERY.  71 

onl}^  our  existence  as  a  people,  but  the  annihilation  of  the 
principles  of  free  Christian  government ;  and  thus  has  ren- 
dered the  continuance  of  negro  slavery  incompatible  with 
the  preservation  of  our  own  liberty  and  independence. 

"  In  the  struggle  of  the  nation  for  existence  against  this 
powerful  and  wicked  treason,  the  highest  executive  au- 
thorities have  i^roclaimed  the  abolition  of  slavery  within 
most  of  the  rebel  States,  and  decreed  its  extinction  by 
military  force.  They  have  enlisted  those  formerly  held  as 
slaves  to  be  soldiers  in  the  national  armies.  They  have 
taken  measures  to  organize  the  labour  of  the  freedmen, 
and  instituted  measures  for  their  support  and  government 
in  their  new  condition.  It  is  the  President's  declared  pol- 
icy not  to  consent  to  the  reorganization  of  civil  government 
within  the  seceded  States  upon  any  other  basis  than  that 
of  emancipation.  In  the  loyal  States  where  slavery  has 
not  been  abolished,  measures  of  emancipation,  in  different 
stages  of  progress,  have  been  set  on  foot,  and  are  near 
their  consummation  ;  and  propositions  for  an  amendment 
to  the  Federal  Constitution,  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the 
States  and  Territories,  are  now  pending  in  the  national 
Congress.  So  that,  in  our  present  situation,  the  interests 
of  peace  and  of  social  order  are  identified  with  the  success 
of  the  cause  of  emancipation.  The  difficulties  which  for- 
merly seemed  insurmountable,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
appear  now  to  be  almost  removed.  The  most  formidable 
remaining  obstacle,  we  think,  will  be  found  to  be  the  un- 
willingness of  the  human  heart  to  see  and  accept  the  truth 
against  the  prejudices  of  habit  and  of  interest ;  and  to  act 
towards  those  who  have  been  heretofore  degraded  as  slaves, 
with  the  charity  of  Christian  principle  in  the  necessary 
efforts  to  improve  and  elevate  them. 

"In  view,  therefore,  of  its  former  testimonies  upon  the 
subject,  the  General  Assembly  does  hereby  devoutly  ex- 
press its  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for  having  overruled 
the  wickedness  and  calamities  of  the  rebellion,  so  as  to 


72  AMERICAN    SLAVERY. 

work  out  the  deliverance  of  our  country  from  the  evil  and 
guilt  of  slavery ;  its  earnest  desire  for  the  extirpation  of 
slavery,  as  the  root  of  bitterness  from  which  has  sprung 
rebellion,  war,  and  bloodshed,  and  the  long  list  of  horrors 
that  follow  in  their  train :  its  earnest  trust  that  the  thor- 
ough removal  of  this  prolific  source  of  evil  and  harm  will  be 
speedily  followed  by  the  blessings  of  our  heavenly  Father, 
the  return  of  peace,  union,  and  fraternity,  and  abounding 
prosperity  to  the  whole  land ;  and  recommend  to  all  in 
our  communion  to  labour  honestly,  earnestly,  and  unwea- 
riedly  in  their  respective  spheres  for  this  glorious  con- 
summation, to  which  human  justice.  Christian  love,  na- 
tional peace  and  prosperity,  every  earthly  and  every  reli- 
gious interest,  combine  to  pledge  them." — Minutes^  p.  296. 


THE   END. 


